November 2023: Albany Agricultural Show

We had a blast at this year's Albany Agricultural Show. We had a steady flow of people attending our display. Many kids came and found us, eager to play with our catchment model shooting down feral animals and seeing how water flows through the landscape followed by some more educational games with Jenni Loveland from Albany and Surrounds Feral Cat Working Group.

While the kids were busy with the games there was plenty of information for the adults to read up on and posters illustrating the wide variety of natural resources management opportunities, resources, and staff/ volunteers to talk to from Torbay Catchment Group, Wilson Inlet Catchment Committee, and our regional body South Coast NRM. We are thankful that we could participate in such a great show with our fellow catchment groups.

Jenni's Perspective
I love the Albany show as I am so passionate about responsible cat ownership, reducing the roaming stray population, and increasing feral control. The show is an opportunity for me to pass the information to as many people as possible.  I might say though being a big kid at heart my favourite age to teach are the Kiddies!

I have some really fun interpretive games on facts about the damage that roaming cats both owned and unowned are doing to our environment and rates that cats can breed if given the right circumstances, which are quite staggering and deserve a gasp or two. I guess the highlight for me would be that they go away remembering what they have learnt, repeat visitors from previous years come back to learn more and when asked about what they have learned after talking to me they KNOW the answer. To me, THIS is what it is all about, teaching the next generation so that they may make a difference. Oh, and I am pretty sure the adults also learn with my “kids” games as well as much as they pretend not to.

It also gives me a chance to improve my school education “CATastrope” skills and to chat with parents and teachers about attending schools with this education program that is linked to sustainability and Aboriginality in the curriculum.

If you would like to learn more, please email [email protected]
 
Jenni's Photo 1- Adults pretending not to laugh and have fun as they put a hand where no ungloved hand should go.
Jenni's Photo 2- Me lost in the crowd of children when they become “vets and Scientists” and discover what is inside a cats stomach.
Jenni's Photo 3- A beautiful letter that a 5-year-old asked her mother to write me after a visit to our display, it was so beautiful to come back to after my lunch break.