2F Trip to the DSPCA, Rathfarnham
We are 2F CSPE class in 2nd year. We recently had the honour of visiting the DSPCA as part of our Junior Cert CSPE action project. DSPCA stands for Dublin Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. It was founded in 1840 by Richard Martin and the organisation deals with 30,000 cases per year. We had studied animal rights and welfare in CSPE class and we also designed animal rights posters to promote the topic. Most of the students in our class own pets so we deeply care about animal rights. We also watched a documentary film “Blackfish” which is about the horrible and unacceptable treatments of captive whales in SeaWorld. So, going to on a visit a place that support animal rights made sense to us!
Everyone in the class was given jobs to organise and we enjoyed putting the trip together. We left school at 9.30 am and it was extra special because Molly’s dad Jeff drove us as part of O’ Neills coaches. Our class teacher Ms Campbell and Mr McNulty came along with us. When we arrived at the foot of the Dublin mountains we were greeted by a volunteer named Ann. She was very nice and spoke to us for about an hour about the society and their work, volunteer’s jobs, and how we can help protect wild and urban animals. I learned many new things such as the fact that all puppies must have a puppy passport. If they don’t have one then they are more than likely bred on a puppy farm. After the talk, we had a tour of all the animal’s facilities which ranged from dogs and cats to goats and pigs. We even got to feed a goat because Ann said, “you haven’t lived if you’ve never fed a goat!”
The trip was worth it because it was very educational and we learned about human responsibilities towards animals. We think that the work that the 1,200 volunteers do is great and it was nice to see the animals being looked after so well. The heavy snow this year destroyed much of the 2 km dog walking track and the DSPCA do rely mostly on public funding. They need 3 million a year to keep going. We donated 60.00 euro in support of this cause. Thank you to Ann and the DSPCA, Jeff, Ms Campbell and Mr McNulty for all their help.
2F Writing Contributors:
Francesca O’ Connor
Aidan Duffy
Sarah Duffy
Aimee Murray
Olivia Cannon