SayulitAnimals Public School Outreach Educational Program

Marianna Berdejo is a professional animal trainer, specializing in wildlife, but also domestic animals, such as dogs and cats. A party brought her to Sayulita 10 years ago, and she knew this is where she wanted to live. She moved from Cancun to Puerto Vallarta, and started her own animal training business, while also establishing relationships with rescue organizations in the area, offering fostering and rehabilitation services. She also began working with a dog sanctuary which in time led to her providing tours to local school children. This experience put her on the path to teaching kids. It was during this time that she met Sara Briner from SayulitAnimals, and began offering behavioral advice for troubled animals.

More recently, she started going into the Sayulita public grade school to educate the local children on behalf of SayulitAnimals. She believes it is vital kids realize that animals are not just things, but have feelings and needs like we do. As opposed to lecturing the children on what they should do, as most already know, she believes it more effective to teach them through their emotions. Her aim is to provide the kids with a fun, positive experience, whereby doing so, “they will catch something”, and she will “plant a seed”.

She visits the school monthly, preparing different curriculum depending on age. For 1^st and 2^nd graders, she focuses on story telling. “This week I made up a story about a dog that was abandoned, and the dog was very sad and looking for it’s family”.  By stressing what the dog went through and how it affected him, the kids can relate and have empathy for the animal, and hopefully this awareness will encourage communication with their parents if they witness an animal being treated badly, the lesson being “if you wouldn’t like to feel alone and thirsty, neither would a dog”.  The children enjoy her visits. LuAnna, a 1^st grader, agrees, “It’s good to guard the animals. I learn a lot of things”.

With the 3^rd and 4^th graders being more active and having less attention, Marianna focuses on physical activities.  She will, for example, have them imagine and act like their favorite animal, thereby inviting compassion and understanding that just like the children, animals are living things. “Right now I am just trying to be their friend, so if they trust me, they’re going to listen to me.”  It seems to be working as Itzae, 9, chimes in…”what I have learned is that we can help the homeless animals and look after them.  We should not mistreat the animals because they are alive and it’s bad to hurt them.”

For the 5^th and 6^th graders, she uses a PowerPoint presentation, and it’s “just about how awesome dogs are, what their ears, eyes, tails are for, so they (the kids) will start thinking they are pretty cool animals. They already know all the bad things about dogs, but if maybe one day they see a dog suffering, they will do something because they know their potential, and they will start respecting them”. She plans to incorporate an art activity at the end of each presentation to cement what was just learned.