Discussion and Conclusions

Using these assessments, the VSI program produced significant changes in the participants’ behavior, attitudes, and knowledge.  After the program, participants had significantly higher rates of spaying and neutering their pets, signing up as volunteers, and producing enrichment for the shelter animals versus control groups.  Students also showed increases in awareness of the shelter, gains in knowledge presented in the program, and changes in attitude statements regarding spay-neuter, animal welfare, behavioral changes, and veterinary care for their pets.  Selected benefits and hypotheses were significant for all five main areas:  traditional humane education benefits, student benefits, teacher benefits, direct organizational benefits, and benefits to the veterinary field.  
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Not only locally, but nationally VSI is in demand.  Humane educators in 7 states recently trained at CAS to become facilitators for the program at their own location.  Plans to assess different areas of the country, age levels, and outcomes like service have gained traction.  Based on these results, it is recommended that humane education shifts focus to a more behavior-driven model that can appeal to animal shelters, schools, and their students.  Long-term assessment of changes in behavior might not only be a more powerful assessment of student engagement, but also helps directly and tangibly document the benefits of such programs to nonprofit organizations.  Also, shelters should look toward high school focused programs that can allow students to take action and participate directly in the shelter community.  Importance of control groups and pre and posttest assessments are reinforced by the findings.  Implications for best practices in curricular development and instruction for a diverse population are discussed.  Larger sample size would allow for a more accurate and complex model of impact from the program based on multiple covariates such as pet ownership, ethnicity, and school.  In the future, more elaborate analysis of factors impacting humane education, science attitudes, and long-term student behaviors would be beneficial.