Well I am a veggie and anti-shooting and hunting, however if my son was not autistic and could understand I would certainly want him to know the full facts and he would then have made up his own mind. I think if you eat it, you should know how the animal lived and is killed, and I dont mean that to be negative at all. So I admire your sister letting your niece make up her own mind.
Even if she does not change her mind, she will know the full facts and be educated in ways city kids are not.
I would explain a bit about what will happen before the shoot and then answer her questions as you go along, if she does get freaked out or upset I would remove her from the situation though or distract her to watch the dogs working. My only thing as you have said be guided by her, you will know what to do and not to upset or scare her.
When it comes to explaining things to children, it might be worth remembering that it's really us grown-ups that are worried and sometimes a bit squeamish about things
Back in Denmark, I was involved with some days that was arranged by the Danish Shooting organization, that gave school classes the chance of experience a day with a stalker. It included the kids taking part in the actual staking, seeing the animal getting shot, gut it, bringing it back and then cook it! The kids loved these days which also taught them a bit biology, by the way. The ones that wasn't so sure about it all was the teachers and other grown-ups.
Remember that no child is born squeamish or with prejudice - that is all something that us grown-ups 'teach' them!
Natasha
____________
WLF All the Way!!!!
"Handle every stressful situation like a dog. If you canīt eat it or hump it. **** on it and walk away..."
Thank you all for your helpful comments They have been taken on board. It is also helpful to hear from other veggies. It helps me see where my sister is standing. I totally respect my sisters views, and she does mine, and we agree to differ. She is a good Mum and lets her kids make their own minds up on things.
Just to let you all know, the weekend went wonderfully with Hannah! I took on board much of the advice you had given, and ended the day with a happy, tired child, who had spent the day watching for pricked brids, marking the fall (very accurately), retrieveing dead birds herself, carrying game, tieing up braces, and asking so many really good questions all day that I was almost out of answers!!
Fantastic day , fantastic weekend, and thank you all for pointing me inthe right direction with the way to explain things to her.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum You cannot attach files in this forum You cannot download files in this forum
