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Gold Award Girl Scout Brianna Hosts Animal Rights Workshop
Girl Scouts all over have a passion for helping others when a challenge comes along. For many Girl Scouts, like Girl Scout Ambassador Brianna, the desire to lend a helping hand extends to four legged friends—and those with fins and feathers, too! On April 16, 2023 Brianna hosted a Girl Scout program around her Gold Award project titled, “Poaching Posterity: How the Illegal Wildlife Trade is Destroying Global Sustainability.” Brianna created this workshop to share education with other Girl Scouts about the cycle of poaching, consumerism, and how they can make a difference by advocating for sustainable choices.
“I was inspired to create ‘Poaching Posterity’ when I learned about exotic wildlife trafficking through social media accounts about wildlife conservation,” Brianna said. “I also became interested in learning more about how animals can shed viruses when they feel scared and these viruses can be transmitted to humans. After seeing numerous videos and photos of abuse and inhumane living situations for animals, I decided to educate others about both why this happens and how it is damaging long term sustainability of human life. This past school year I started interning at the Virginia Zoo where I realized that animal trafficking is a subject absent in both our school systems’ educational discussions on the environment as well as within our camps at the Zoo. This is a difficult subject matter for young kids and I think a lot of people shy away from talking about it because it is so sad, but it's important for them to recognize that they are the next generation that will be left to correct the mistakes, as well as live with the damages if we don't correct the problems in our ecosystem.”
Throughout the workshop, Girl Scouts viewed Brianna’s presentation and were guided along completing requirements towards badges for their grade levels.
Girl Scout Brownies earned their Pets Badge by learning about the needs of various pets, making dog mats, talking about adopting animals and making homemade dog biscuits. Girl Scout Juniors earned the Animal Habitats badge by discovering wild animal species, creating an animal habitat, and exploring endangered species that live around the globe. Girl Scout Cadettes worked on elements of their Eco Trekker and Animal Helpers badges, as well as their “MEdia” Journey throughout the event by creating sustainable habitats and learning about the use of animal products in modern medicine. Brianna's project also highlighted how media can create a desire for exotic pets that the average person is not equipped to care for so that the girls could learn how to research and be responsible pet owners.
“The idea was to show the girls how consumerism connects to the poaching crisis,” said Brittany Orosco, Briana’s mom and troop leader. “Brianna created a family-friendly presentation that showed some of the most endangered animals and how this issue is caused by people wanting specific parts of the animal for jewelry or decoration. These items can easily be replicated using sustainable materials, but people place more value on things like ivory and turtle shell because they know they came from an animal that might not be around much longer. She talked about how to be a smarter consumer by looking for items that were sustainably sourced and use recycled materials.”
Thanks to Brianna, several Girl Scouts walked away with the resources and information they need to make the world a better place for people, and animals, too!
