TRANSPEACE

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Kerulos has partnered with K-12 schools to create a Transpeace education and action program inviting children around the world to learn about and help our Animal Kin.

Transpeace empowers and encourages children to get involved globally and in their own community to create a world where animals live in dignity and freedom.

Transpeace Happenings

• Valentine's Day with Animal Kin—Trans-species Ambassadors learn about animal adoption
• National Bird Day Celebration 2011—Second annual fest with art exhibition
• Poems for Fallen Kin—Students proclaim, "I'm a Bird."
• Squirrel Talk—Kindergartners ask about our rodent friends
• Walk Like the Animals Walk–a–Thon—One-fourth mile is about 440 elephant steps...
• Top Ten Ways You Can Make the World a Better Place for Animals—Ten and counting...
• Together We Can Make All Places Sanctuary—Fifth graders learn about being sanctuary.
• Tie a Blue Ribbon—The Gulf Oil Spill brings out students with message: Save Our Sea Life.

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Valentine's Day with Animal Kin

Valentines and Gifts for Our "Kin Under Skin, Fin, Feather, and Fur." New York Kindergarten students celebrated Valentine's Day this year with the beautiful animals awaiting a "forever home" in The Little Shelter in Huntington, NY.

These young Trans-species Ambassadors learned about animal adoption and loving guardianship through stories, songs and a grab bag filled with donated toys and treats.

Everyone had an opportunity to talk about kinship with animal kin and what we can each do to make all places sanctuary: a safe place to live, nutritious fresh food and water, love and a forever home with friends and family.

National Bird Day Celebration 2011

On January 5, 2011, Kerulos and the Avian Welfare Coalition once again celebrated National Bird Day with the childrren of New York.

This year, Rhame Avenue joined Centre Avenue Elementary School in an art exhibition dedicated to the memory of East Rockaway's former mayor, Ed Sieban. Under the guidance and supervision of Centre Avenue art teacher, Beth Brody, kindergartners painted bird houses, while first graders made cloth stuffed birds. Second graders made prints of birds on colorful watercolor paper, and third graders created bird collages. James Audubon-style bird drawings with color pencils were the task of fourth graders, while grade five designed highly-stylized birds using color markers. Finally, sixth graders crafted aluminum-emobossed bird ornamemts. All art was on display at the public library and town hall.

Across the globe, Transpeace Ambassadors will spread their wings even farther by sponsoring a Yellow-nape Amazon Parrot Nest in El Salvador, thanks to the Alas Bonitas Program headed by renowned conservation scientist, Dr. Robin Bjork. In turn, El Salvadorean students will learn about North American birds who, like parrots, are of in need of humanity's help. Once again, the East Rockaway Transpeace Ambassadors lend their shoulders to putting wind under the wings of our Avian Kin!

The Celebration's History

The recent National Bird Day celebration in East Rockaway has its roots in an education and action program developed in 2010 by Centre Avenue thrid grade students with their teacher Lorraine Donlon and The Kerulos Center (see video below). Their efforts inspired then-Mayor Ed Sieban to declare January 5th official Bird Day for the town of East Rockaway.

Through science readings and activities, the students learned about our avian kin and the plight of wild birds captured from their flocks and held in captivity. They also read the compelling real life story of Lucky the Lorikeet recounted in the beautifully illustrated book created by the Avian Welfare Coalition with the Midwest Avian Adoption and Rescue Services (MAARS) sanctuary. The children stepped into the feet of a lorikeet by learning how to "eat like a lorikeet", drinking apple juice with a toothbrush to emulate how a lorikeet's beak eats bananas and nectar. After learning all about birds, the children created posters and bookmarks honoring parrots to mark the day

Things You Should know About Birds

• THINK GLOBAL! You can sponsor a bird's nest for the Alas Bonitas Project—they build parrot nests for birds who have lost their forest homes. For more information how you can help the birds, contact Dr. Robin Bjork.
• THINK LOCAL! Be kind to birds everywhere. Fill a bird feeder in your yard and enjoy bird watching.
• Just like people, birds are loyal, hardworking and loving.
• Thousands of birds face extinction when habitats are destroyed.
• Millions of birds suffer in captivity.
• Birds can climb trees, take care of their babies and fly!
• Just like people, birds help their families and friends.
• Just like people, birds use tools, count, remember and learn language.
• Just like people, birds have a personality.
• Just like people, birds need a safe home to raise their families.
  
  

Poems for Fallen Kin

New York grammar school students, saddened by what they have learned about parrots and the recent tragic news of birds dying and falling to the earth, wrote these poems to commemorate our fallen avian kin:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Squirrel Talk

The second in our Transpeace Animal Kin series, Squirrel Talk, is a conversation where children and animals find common ground. New York kindergartners interview Kerulos faculty and wildlife rehabilitation expert Ann Southcombe about our free-ranging rodent relatives, the squirrels. Watch this video to see what these young students learned from Squirrels.

Walk Like the Animals Walk–a–Thon

Children at East Rockaway Centre Avenue School and Kerulos faculty stepped into the shoes of the Animals by holding a Walk Like an Animal Walk-a-thon. Over 400 students and teachers dressed like their favorite animal and "walk the walk" to make a change for all animals. They made banners and artwork and marked out a quarter-mile track on the playground and gathered together to walk the track using the information below to calculate the correct number of steps:

One-fourth mile is about…..

• 440 elephant steps
• 1584 wild turkey steps
• 633 grey wolf steps
• 288 moose steps
• 264 tiger steps
• 632 grizzly bear steps
• 262 lion steps
  
  

Read more about the event at Centre Avenue School.

Top Ten Ways You Can Make the World a Better Place for Animals

1. Enjoy watching animals in their natural habitat, not on display in captivity.
2. Keep wild animals in the wild.
3. Adopt from a shelter instead of buying one from a store. Read more about our "fine feathered friends" at the Avian Welfare Coalition.
4. Encourage your local stores to adopt a fur-free policy.
5. Take action to change laws so to protect animals. Decision makers need to hear from you. Find out the names and addresses of your local representatives and let them know you are an animal advocate.
6. If you travel on a plane with an animal family member, be sure to bring him/her into the cabin with you. Travel in plane cargo area is dangerous.
7. Learn about our Fowl Family at United Poultry Concerns and how you can help them live beautiful lives.
8. Make sure your animal family member wears an ID tag to enable him/her to be returned home if lost.
9. Go vegan! It's healthy and helps our Animal Kin!
10. Organize a fundraiser to help animals.
    

 

Together We Can Make All Places Sanctuary

Fifth graders at Centre Avenue School are making the school garden into a "sanctuary" using guidelines developed by the The Kerulos Center's Being Sanctuary project..

Think Local!

How to Create a Wildlife-Friendly Sanctuary at school and in your own backyard:

1. Provide Food for Wildlife—plant trees, shrubs and flowers native to your area.
2. Supply Water for Wildlife—provide clean water in a bird bath for drinking, washing and reproduction.

3. Create Cover for Wildlife—animals need shelter for protection from predators and harsh weather. You can use rocks, branches and tree limbs.
4. Give Wildlife a Place to Raise Their Young—Places for cover also provide a safe place for wild life to raise their young.

Share photos of your sanctuary habitat with The Kerulos Center's Being Sanctuary project.

Tie a Blue Ribbon

Centre Avenue students reacted to the Gulf Oil Spill by reporting the environmental disaster on their school TV station.

Students brought attention to the oil spill disaster by spelling out SAVE OUR SEA LIFE on the chain link fence outside the school. 

They also tied blue ribbons to celebrate marine wildlife and clean water. Donations were sent to wildlife rescue efforts in Louisiana.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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© 2013 Kerulos Center All rights reserved
"Science in service to animals"

OVERVIEW

SANCTUARY

RESEARCH

EDUCATION

      SACRED BONES

      TRANSPEACE

      COURSES

SERVICE

      THE BIOPHILIUM

      REACH

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Declaration of Love

The United States of Being, created by Transspecies Ambassadors of Peace

July 4, 2010

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for children to dissolve the artificial line which separates all beings from one another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the equal station to which the laws of nature celebrate all earthlings as divine beings, a decent respect to the opinions of children requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to reject animal cruelty, domination and captivity.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all animals are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

That to secure these rights, laws and policies must reflect the scientific data that is irrefutable. That whenever any policies become destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new laws, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such forms, as to them shall seem most likely to effect safety and happiness for all species. We, the children, refuse to allow the long train of suffering and abuses to continue. It is our duty, as the future guardians of our planet, to throw off laws that allow suffering, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these animal nations, and such is now the necessity which embraces a world where animals live in dignity and freedom. The history of the treatment of our kin under skin, fin, feather and fur is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over animals.

To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

Our current laws do not reflect scientific knowledge of animals as sentient beings deserving of self-determination.

The Trans-Species Ambassadors of Peace wish for all animals that which we wish for ourselves; freedom to live in dignity and security; freedom to be who we are without fear of being objectified, imprisoned or tortured; freedom to live in peace with our families without fear of separation;

We wish to end the senseless destruction of habitats and homes; the cruel practice of enslaving animals for entertainment; and the unjust treatment of animals as commodities.

We, therefore, the representatives of the future, appeal to all children to unite with every family, herd, pact, flock and school to create harmony, peace, and respect for all species on our planet.

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