Fulton High School FFA hosts petting zoo for children

Bella Yates, 4, pets a puppy Friday at Fulton High School during the FFA's petting zoo.
Bella Yates, 4, pets a puppy Friday at Fulton High School during the FFA's petting zoo.

Fulton High School's FFA gave young children the opportunity to go up close and personal with animals at a petting zoo on Friday.

Isaiah Bishop, the FFA's assistant adviser and a junior at FHS, spearheaded the program and said the good turnout from the 2013 petting zoo prompted this year's event.

Children in preschool through first grade from Fulton Public Schools and youngsters from St. Peter's Catholic School participated. Puppies, a cow, horses, poultry and more were on site in addition to crops - soybeans, wheat, milo and corn - for the children to touch.

Bishop said many of the children don't have the opportunity to interact with animals in their everyday lives.

"It's a good way for them to experience, learn about and touch (the animals)," Bishop said.

FFA advisor James Rinck echoed Bishop's statement.

"This provides a form on hands-on enrichment they don't have on a day-to-day basis," he said.

Rinck added that while the petting zoo benefits the children, it also gives his high school students an important experience.

"Also, this is a really good opportunity for my students to demonstrate leadership skills and learn," Rinck said.

Local conservation agent Todd Houf also brought in various furs (the biggest being a black bear and the smallest ones were a mink and muskrat). He taught the children the difference between wild and domestic animals.

Houf showed a group of children the skin of a bobcat, explaining how it is not like house cats.

"Could you have a bobcat in your house?" he asked the children, who replied "no'. "No, because it's a wild animal."