Carolin Behrend
It was my love for animals that first drew me to Humane Education and IHE. I was born and raised in Germany and worked in my home country for more than ten years as a secondary school teacher. During a Fulbright exchange year in 1998-99 that I spent in Seattle, Washington, I met my husband Peter, who is American. In 2001 we got married, and I immigrated to the United States. After my arrival in the States I had to wait six months to get a work permit, which meant that I had a lot of free time. I’ve always been an animal lover, and so I decided to volunteer first at a shelter and wildlife center and later at a farm animal sanctuary located in the greater Seattle area.
At this point in my life I had no idea how many shelter animals are put to sleep in the U.S., nor did I know about the practices used in factory farming. I was shocked, especially since volunteering at the farm animal sanctuary gave me the opportunity to spend a lot of time with individual farm animals; I fell in love with each and every one of them. After learning about the horrific practices perpetrated on farmed animals, such as debeaking and gestation crates, I decided to become vegetarian, and my husband followed my example almost right from the start.
Since I loved my volunteer jobs so much, I decided that it would be wonderful if I could work in a field that combined my experience as an educator with my passion for animals. I searched online for a program that would do just that, and this is how I found IHE. I signed up for the master’s program, and I graduated in 2005.
Going through the program at IHE is one of the best things I’ve ever done in my life, and I will always be grateful to the faculty for their support and encouragement during the often-painful process of learning about all those humane education issues. I think in respect to animals, Matthew’s Scully’s book, Dominion, had the most influence on me.
After graduating, I ended up volunteering in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, which was another life changing experience. I then worked for awhile for the same farm animal sanctuary that I used to volunteer for, but unfortunately, not in a position as a humane educator; and that was what I really wanted to do. In spring 2006 I traveled to South Carolina to observe a program called Healing Species. Healing Species is an 11-week violence prevention program. With the help of rescued dogs this program teaches children compassion, empathy and respect for other people, animals, and the environment. I really liked the program, and in 2006 I decided to found Healing Species Puget Sound, a satellite chapter of Healing Species. I’ve been teaching the program ever since at schools in the Puget Sound region. However, I soon realized, that in order to be able to raise enough funding for the program I would have to found a nonprofit organization.
Through this program I was extremely fortunate to meet a small, very special group of wonderful women with the same love and passion for animals and children that I have, and together we founded a nonprofit called Project Canine. In addition to the Healing Species curriculum, our organization also offers a therapy dog training program, and a program called Canine Urban Living.
February 7, 2009 - 8:30 am - 5:00 pm | Location: Cascadia Commons Cohousing Community Common House
Live your values. Change the world. Choose MOGO! Let your life reflect what truly matters to you. Discover ways to choose MOGO (the most good), act on what's most important to you, and build a better world. Come to our life-transforming weekend MOGO workshop, that of...
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