If this is true, we must ask ourselves, why do we have animal abuse at all? The amount of animal abuse in this world is the most catastrophic it has ever been. Animals are beaten, scalded, cut, shot, electrocuted, stolen from their homes, chained, caged, burnt, skinned, whipped, suffocated, poisoned, stabbed , and tortured. Compassionate people are understandably confused and feel disheartened by this. Surely kindness is not a phase that one grows out of? The truth is that animal abuse is rarely an individual choice. It is a cultural problem that is ingrained into our minds from birth.

"Not an individual choice?" some might be thinking. "It is no one's choice but the abuser's." Was it a child's choice to eat meat or visit the circus? Go to the zoo? Buy from a pet shop? Wear leather shoes? Did they know that those shoes were the skin of an animal or that buying the cute fuzzy rabbit was supporting the abuse of other animals? The subject of animal abuse is something foreign to a child. By the time most children experience or discover animal abuse, they have been contributing to it for their entire lives.

The time will come when every young child learns that "beef" and "pork" are euphemisms for "dead cow" and "pig flesh." Undoubtedly, many children will be surprised , if not shocked , and ask their parents about it . How likely is it that a child's parents would say "Oh, we thought you knew. If you'd like to stop eating them, we support you 100 percent "? Parents tell their children that we have to eat animals or we will face death ourselves. Children are not only taught that it is necessary to eat animals but that it is our right and, in fact, obligation to do so.

Parents who teach their children that animal exploitation is OK do not do so out of cruelty, but because they believe it themselves. Despite the growing the number of vegetarians, people still believe that eating meat is necessary. Others believe (and teach their children) that using animals for our own pleasure helps us to fulfill a divine role that God has set for us. Rarely are they informed about the amount of abuse that is involved. Parents usually want the best for their children. We cannot blame them for feeding their children meat if they believe it is the best thing for them. Even if a child does have those rare parents who support vegetarianism, though they do not practice it themselves, it is not plausible for every animal-loving youngster to give up the food he or she has become accustomed to. Thus they are stuck in a cycle that they never opted into - they are taught to abuse animals.

At the age of four or five, many parents give their child's play time with mommy or daddy away to an institution: school. In school, not only are there adults teaching children that abuse toward animals is necessary and/or OK , we have a lot of other children doing the same things that we are; enter peer pressure and conformity. We learn about the food chain, in which humans are at the top, and the food pyramid, in which animal foods seem to play a major part. The food we're fed is often less healthy than the stuff we were fed at home, but we don't know that. We do know, however, that we get in trouble if we don't eat it and that our friends are eating it , too. A child rarely stops loving animals at such a young age, but they are not told the truth about animals. As slavery was once promoted as a form of protection for "less intelligent" humans, we are taught that animal exploitation is natural and a good thing for the animals. Animal abuse, though it may be, never crosses our minds.

Unfortunately, as more people grow aware, other people grow ignorant. The increase in children's programming on television has replaced decent parenting in some families. Not only does the television inspire conformity and promote animal abuse--not to mention creating future couch potatoes - it has power over the parent as well. Advertisers know when Suzy sees "baby-wet-my-pants" and thinks everyone else has one, she will cry or scream in order to get it. Advertisers treat animals in the same way: as products. Hamburgers grow in gardens and cows tell us to eat chickens on billboards. Animals are not beings, they're commodities. Animals love performing tricks and rabbits lay eggs at Easter time.

The television has the power to create child consumers at ages younger than two. Coupled with indoctrination and mandatory conformity in school system, the television has even more power to prevent compassion and further cruelty and ignorance. There is no way to avoid child advertising, lest you move to a private island. It is worse, however, to seclude yourself from the media-pumped society, because it is in this society that we have the ability to help the most animals. It is here that children are trained to abuse and here we must we stay.

So what can we do about this? Can we rescue all the unfortunate children, being raised into animal abuse? Should we upbraid parents for not raising aware and compassionate children or vilify them behind their backs? Animal abuse and exploitation is too deep-rooted in our society to stop it by force. What we can do, however, is educate. For those parents with open minds and those children who are growing up and might one day start questioning the world, we can be there. We can reach out as parents, friends, siblings, neighbors, teachers, mentors, students, and fellow human beings. We can create a better world through education, kindness, and compassion and only through these things will we succeed.

We teach kindness by educating our youth about issues that involve them and other creatures and by encouraging them to think critically. These are both lessons strongly lacking in the school system and on the television. Humane education is the term given to the teaching of compassion for all beings. Humane education encourages all people, especially children, to think critically about our own actions, the actions of others, and what we can do to help the world. Humane education has been neglected for many years in the animal movements, except for local humane societies teaching compassion toward mostly dogs and cats, but humane education is one of the largest growing forms of activism in the movement. You do not have to take classes or be certified to be a humane educator. A humane educator is anyone who reaches out to youth, inspiring the best qualities of being human. By volunteering as a mentor, tutoring, speaking at local schools, or even speaking to children at a bus stop, we become humane educators. Never miss an opportunity to reach out to a child. The animals deserve it and so do the children.

Animal abuse is taught. Abuse and exploitation of animals has been a part of human society for most of our existence. As mortifying and debilitating as this may seem, there is hope. Teenagers (both female and male) are the number one growing population of animal conscientious vegetarians, and to this I can testify. I can also speak as an educator, sibling, and friend that young children want and are going vegetarian as well. They cannot, however, do this on their own nor without difficulty and struggles. They need to be encouraged, educated, and encouraged some more. We must reach out to youth and teach kindness and compassion. By reassuring that compassion is neither weird nor non-existent in this confusing and sometimes cruel world, we can create a more kind and peaceful planet for everyone.

--Rick is a Nutrition Consultant and Specialist, Humane Educator and Public Speaker who can be reached at veganrick@aol.com.