LIVONIA, MICH. –
Hello Friends of Animals Everywhere,
This May we are starting a series of quarterly newsletters to keep you updated on great things happening in our Animal Studies program.
Here are some highlights from the academic year 2023-2024:
Many of our students joined the Animal Awareness Student Group on campus, where they organized a movie event, created toys for shelter cats, and visited Sasha Farm, a farmed animal sanctuary in Manchester, MI (see photos below).
Each fall and winter, we complete service-learning projects at the Detroit Zoo. Last winter one of the groups was working on making windows and other glass surfaces at the zoo bird-friendly to prevent bird collisions with glass, which every year claim the lives of millions of migratory birds across North America.
Our first internship student, Jacob Van Keuren, successfully completed his internship focused on caring and learning about amphibians at the Detroit Zoo.
Another student, Jessica Schwarz, did a great job authoring monthly issues of Madonna Wildlife, featuring various species with which we share our beautiful campus. The issues were published in Tuesday Newsday, Madonna Messenger, and were displayed on campus monitors. All of them can be viewed on the Protected Species webpage.
Finally, for the first time, the course Animals in Religion was offered during the previous Winter semester. Our students greatly enjoyed learning about this rarely discussed, important topic as people’s religious beliefs about animals impact directly how our planetary companions are treated.
That’s it for now. I look forward to connecting with in August when the next issue of the Animal Studies Chronicle is due. In the meantime, please visit our website to learn more about us and our program.
I wish you a summer filled with animal adventures,
Dr. D.
Program Director, B.A. in Animal Studies
