TOPICAL OUTLINE FOR “LINCOLN LAW DAY 2009” LESSON
PLAN
By the NYSBA Committee on Animals and the Law
Overview
There are many ways to begin a study of President
Lincoln. One good way is by finding what he thought about a
subject that interests you. If you like animals and if they
interest you, you may wonder what President Lincoln thought of them,
too. Many things have been written about President Abraham Lincoln, but
one facet of his legacy that is not as widely known is his love of
animals. We wanted to take some time today to look at how Abraham
Lincoln treated and thought of animals.
Area of Study
Abraham Lincoln had some basic beliefs about animals, which we will
discuss today. Ask yourselves: Do I believe these are important,
too?
I. Be kind to animals and respect their right to
live.
II. Act responsibly towards animals in our care by providing food,
water, shelter, and professional medical care.
III. Be careful not to destroy the habitat of wild animals so that
they can find enough food, water, and shelter in order for them to
live.
VOCABULARY / CONCEPTS (click
here for list without definitions)
1. Appropriate shelter: Shelter which
covers and protects your animal, such as making sure that your dog has a
place to be away from the sun, rain, and other extreme temperatures.
2. Companion Animal: An animal that is kept as a
pet
3. Cruelty (to animals): Causing suffering and
harm to animals. New York has laws that make it illegal to be cruel to
any animal.
4. Domestic Animal: Animals that are under the
control of humans, such as pets or farm animals that are raised for
food.
5. Endangered (species): An of animal that is in
danger of becoming extinct (dying) in the near future because there may
not be enough of those animals to continue the existence of its
species.
6. Environment: The conditions that surround an
animal that influence its existence on Earth.
7. Extinct: When a type of animal dies and no
longer exists on the Earth. This may occur due to loss of habitat,
disease or destruction by Man.
8. Habitat: A place where an animal lives that
includes the things that it needs to survive, such as water, food and
shelter.
9. Kindness (to animals): The act of treating
animals humanely and with respect.
10. Responsible pet care: Making sure that your
pet has food, water, shelter, and medical care, and treating your pet
with kindness.
11. Sustenance: What supports life, such as food
and water.
12. Wildlife: Animals that live in the wild and
that are not domestic animals.
Now, let’s look more closely at these basic beliefs.
I. Be kind to animals and respect their right to
live.
President Lincoln taught us that we should respect animals and be
kind to them. This is true whether the animals are pets or
wildlife. He also considered animals used for food as deserving of
respect. On one occasion, as he was traveling, he noticed a pig
stuck in mud. He stopped and went to help get the pig because he
could not bear the thought that it would suffer by not being able to get
out of the mud. (Kenneth A. Bernard, Glimpses of Lincoln in the
White House, Abraham Lincoln Quarterly, December 1952, p.
168.)
How does this relate to our lives today?
Questions for students:
-
What would you have done in that situation and why?
-
If you could not take the action that Lincoln did, then what action
could you take?
-
When we respect animals, does it help us to respect people,
too?
New York State has laws making it illegal to be cruel, or mean, to
any animal, regardless of whether it is domestic animals (farm animals)
a companion animal (pets) or wildlife. Some examples
are:
Agriculture and Markets law sections 353 (misdemeanor) and 353-a
(felony-applies only to domestic animals) prohibit cruelty to
animals
Agriculture and Markets law section 351 makes it illegal to encourage
animal fighting
Resources:
Resources: www.kindnews.org has teacher
resources, including lesson plans on responsible pet care, including
worksheets
www.kindnews.org/teacher_zone/lesson_plans.asp
www.kindnews.org/teacher_zone/default.asp
www.kindnews.org/teacher_zone/OnlineWorksheets
http://public.leginfo.state.ny.us/menugetf.cgi
contains links to New York State Agriculture and Markets Law (AML)
which:
o Prohibits cruelty
o Prohibits animal fighting
II. President Lincoln taught people to act responsibly
towards animals in our care by providing food, water, shelter and
professional medical care.
When Abe Lincoln was preparing to go to Washington, DC, to become
President, he was concerned that the trip to the nation’s capitol
would be too strenuous for the dog, and so he asked a neighbor in
Illinois to take good care for the dog. (Charles B. Strozier,
Lincoln’s Quest for Union: Public and Private Meetings, p.
26.) However, he only left his dog after having a neighbor
take a picture of him with this dog. Once President Lincoln was at the
White House, he allowed his cat, Tabby, eat at the table with the
rest of his family. (Abe Lincoln Loved Animals, by Ellen
Jackson)
How does this relate to our lives today?
Questions for students:
-
Was this it a good idea to leave his dog with a
neighbor? Why?
-
What would you have done, and why?
-
If Abe Lincoln were living today, do you think he would be able to
bring the family dog with him to the White House?
Just like people, animals have certain very basic needs. New
York State also has various laws which require people to take good care
of the animals in their custody. For instance:
1. It is illegal to deprive any animal of necessary food, drink or
sustenance, which means its basic needs for survival. (Agriculture and
Markets law section 353.). This applies to wildlife and
domestic animals.
2. It is illegal to confine a companion animal (pet) in a motor
vehicle in either very hot or very cold temperatures without taking
steps to ensure that the animal will not be harmed. (Agriculture and
Markets law section 353-d).
3. It also is against the law in New York to keep a dog outside
without providing it with appropriate shelter for that type of dog
(giving consideration to its physical condition) and for the particular
climate. The law specifically says that dogs which are
confined to a particular outdoor area must be provided shade from the
sun and for dogs living outside, they must have shelter which means a
structure with a waterproof roof, insulation from extremes in
temperature, room to move about and a way to remove the dog’s
waste away from the living area. (Agriculture and Markets law section
353-b.)
4. It is against New York State law to abandon an animal that you
own or have custody of or to allow an animal to be left injured or
disabled in a public place without care. (Agriculture and Markets law
section 355.)
Resources:
www.kindnews.org provides
resources for teachers including lesson plans on responsible pet care,
including worksheets
http://public.leginfo.state.ny.us/menugetf.cgi
contains links to New York State Agriculture and Markets Law (AML)
which:
o Requires sustenance, food and water
o Requires shelter for dogs living outdoors
o Prohibits keeping dogs in vehicles in harsh weather
o Prohibits abandoning pets
III. Part of respecting animal life means
caring for their habitat, because if we don’t maintain safe places
for animals to live, they will die off and eventually become endangered
or even go extinct. Be careful not to destroy the habitat of wild
animals or injure them.
As a young man, Abe Lincoln refused to take part in the tormenting of
turtles which was a trick young people often played on the
animals. He wrote about it in an essay for school. He was
willing to go against what seemed to be the popular thing to do if what
seemed popular was, to him, the wrong thing to do. (Esther May
Carter, She Knew Lincoln, p. 10.) Before Abe Lincoln became President,
he was traveling by horseback on business in Illinois when he found baby
birds that had blown out of their nest in a windstorm. He stopped
his journey to look for their nest. When he found it, he placed
the birds back in the nest. He told his traveling companions,
“I could not have slept tonight if I had not given those tow
little birds to their mother.” (Kenneth A. Bernard,
Glimpses of Lincoln in the White House, Abraham Lincoln Quarterly,
December 1952, p. 168.)
These are examples of how Abraham Lincoln took steps to ensure that
animals were safe in their surroundings.
Questions for students:
-
How would you have handled each of these situations? Why? Why
not?
-
What would you do if people around you were tormenting an
animal?
-
Would you get help for an animal that was abandoned? How
would you know if the animal was lost and would not be found by its
mother or father?
How does this relate to our lives today?
There are many animals on our planet which are losing their places to
live, or habitat, and other animals have been in the past or presently
are being over hunted. All of these animals have one thing
in common: They may become extinct. This means that they may
no longer live on our planet with us. The United States
Government recognized the danger faced by many species of animals, and
it passed a law in 1973 called the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (7
U.S.C. § 136, 16 U.S.C. § 1531 et seq.) or ESA in an attempt
to try to stop this from happening. The ESA is the most
wide-ranging of the dozens of United States environmental protection
laws passed in the 1970s. It recognized that the number of certain
animals on our planet were dropping dramatically. Such
animals are called endangered species, and the law was designed to
protect critically imperiled species from extinction by protecting the
animals themselves from harm and by protecting their
habitats. The polar bear was recently added to the
list of endangered species. The grey wolf was just taken off the
list. Now it may be hunted legally. Question: What do you
think the likely effect of this will be?
Resources:
National Fish and Wildlife website has materials for teachers on
endangered species, including lesson plans, activities and a poster.
www.fws.gov/endangered/kidsposter.html
- Weird and wonderful wildlife poster
www.fws.gov/endangered/kids/kids_edu_mat.html
- Teaching lessons
www.fws.gov/endangered/kids/index.html
- Overview of materials on endangered species for children
www.kidsplanet.org re:
wildlife, animal fact sheets, lesson plans
www.bronxzoo.com/educators/educator-resources/online-interactives.aspx
- Relates to wildlife – online interactive activities
Endangered Species Slideshow - click pdf
Endangered species glossary -click pdf
Endangered species worksheet (based on slideshow above)-click pdf
Endangered species worksheet answers -click pdf
CLICK
HERE FOR ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES AND LINKS . . .
Related Files
vocab list (Adobe PDF File)
Endangered species slideshow (Adobe PDF File)
Endangered species glossary (Adobe PDF File)
Endangered species worksheet (Adobe PDF File)
Endangered species key (Adobe PDF File)
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