The larger orgs who have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in ''making humane education available to the public'' has no statistics to prove its validity.  Therefore, showing no benefits to the programs.  Well, duh!!!!  They are required to involve themselves in this effort by those who send them money.  They don't have statistics to prove anything because they have not done anything to provide statistics except to send fliers and brochures. This is so very sad that a large national group would suggest such ignorance.  The primary difference between for profit and non-profit organizations is not the mission, is not the quality of the people who work in them, is not a different principle of doing business. It is, quite simply, accountability. Non-profits, at least many shelters don't seem to aspire to any. The CEO of a for profit business that failed to meet his bottom line would not survive, nor would the business. In the non-profit world, however, very few CEOs feel they need to be accountable to the public for their mission. They could merely decry the “sad state of affairs” and continue to ask for money without ever being required to get results. “Look,” they are fond of saying, “how many children we visited this year under our humane education program,” despite an ever increasing body count as the animals continue to be killed.
 
To be successful, a localized humane education program must set two goals and meet them in a specified amount of time.  1 - reduce the number of unnecessary and random deaths of dogs and cats per year, and;     2 - increase the number of dogs and cats being adopted at county and city run dog pounds.  Both of these are only accomplished by educating our future generations of decision makers with just a few limited facts.
 
Programs such as this need to be focusing on the 'hows' and 'whens' i.e. selecting a given middle school and getting to every 7th grader in that building before moving on to the 8th graders.  This is not difficult if appropriate plans are made in advance.  You can either spend one day at that school and visit each 7th grade class for an hour or gather them all in an assembly type situation and speak to all of them simultaneously.  But going to just one class per visit is not using your time wisely.  According to the research I've read, this program could be successful if we could also have a 'refresher' course before the students graduated from high school.  In other words, they need to hear this one hour presentation 2 times between 5th grade and graduation for the info to stick with them.
 
Going into K - 4th grades,  humane education are nice programs, but I believe they are people programs. In other words, I am not convinced they help animals, either directly by saving lives or making people keep or neuter their pets with any degree of measurability, or indirectly, by providing needed revenue streams.  This is primarily due to the fact that this age student is unable to digest the facts given through a substantial program.

On the other side of the picture, for those of us who are  individual or smaller grass roots programs and efforts who actually see what kids can learn and the changes they make right in front of our very eyes with a hard-hitting program that lays out all the facts clearly at the onset of the program and then keep their attention with stories of how they can make a difference,  we know differently.  WE KNOW THAT A SUBSTANTIAL, fact based and blunt program with no sugar coating CAN AND DOES have an effect on the students that could literally change the world within a 20 year time period.  THEY KNOW NOTHING.  Even the staff and teachers step up and tell us that they were unaware of most of our facts and info provided.  The question and answer period (usually an after school addition to the original presentation) brings a flurry of well thought out questions by kids 5th - 12th grade who would normally much rather be out playing, but have decided to come back for more info.

I have been in 12 western states recently speaking to over 5,000 students and helping them form humane education clubs to older students and I have been in direct contact with these students.  Of course I cannot afford to do a professional study or survey .    My program is active in 11 states and 5 foreign countries.  I have, in fact based my presentation and contents on a well read and published research project on the effacacies and methodology of humane education by Dr. Richard Avinzino from the Utah State University and can be  found here;  http://21stcenturycares.org/research.htm

Warner said, "I would be absolutely thrilled for you to come and watch one of my programs so you could see for yourself that a good strong program given by someone who    still has faith in the human species can,  and really does make an enormous difference that very minute. For a short condensed version of my lesson presentation, see www.21stcenturycares.org/edpresentation.htm    The site has nearly 1,000 pages of information that shows why the program is necessary and how to help local folks gain the confidence and information needed to get into their local schools and give humane ed to their students as well.  The main humane education section is at www.21stcenturycares.org/he/humaneed.htm and even have a starter page for those passionate individuals wishing to get a successful humane education program into their community http://21stcenturycares.org/start.htm "

After all, rescue is only working on yesterday's problems.  WORTHWHILE, YES.  But, if we forget about our future, we will only assure our children and grandchildren that they too will be forced to face the same problems because we were too egotistical, full of agendas and ignorant to see the whole picture.  See the sad, embarrassing story  we will have to tell our children  www.21stcenturycares.org/storybook.htm  
Why would we trust the large groups anyway? It does NOT take money to change the future. It only takes knowledge. 

New ideas brings new results.
Remember just like our religious fanatics and minority leaders, absent crimes and imaginary situations against their people and teachings, these organizations disappear -- this means jobs. If the HSUS really solved one of these problems, they would have to lay off a large portion of their employees.

Is the American public is too damn stupid to recognize that?

FACT: Since 1983, Americans have spent $1 billion annually on community animal control efforts.
FACT: Since 1983 Americans have also donated approximately $1 billion annually to their favorite animal protection organizations.
FACT: With more than 3,000 non profit organizations in the United States dedicated to this cause and the countless millions of man hours put into this effort in addition to the incredible figures of $40 billion since 1983 have not lead to one single solution. We still see dog pounds in every community across the nation scrambling to make room for the increasing numbers of dogs and cats.

"This is not rocket science - we just need folks to recognize change is necessary. We put a man on the moon; we can cure a new disease in record time; we even win wars in 100 days or less. Americans have the sophisticated technology and successful marketing prowess to make miraculous changes in the human race, on a global scale, yet, we can’t seem to successfully convey the reality of our behavior and the subsequent consequences when it comes to how we view and care for our companion animals

People could work smart instead of hard.  That would be the single greatest step this movement could take to see improvements.  Improvements that have been brought to the public's eye by the national groups,  but in diluted form.
Tell Amanda to rediscover her program.  have an outsider tell her if it's strong and entertaining enough. 
then tell her darn board to get off their butts and attend one of the HE programs and see for themselves.  If she is using a weak and sickeningly sweet program it will have no effect.  So, it won't be measured in the correct column.  Kids today are savvy and mature and can see if you are s silly bleeding heart sweetsy - sweetsy type person. If you are, you're dead in the water before you start.  And trying to teach students under 5th grade will have little or no impact to the larger picture.  They just don't get it.
Again, I will end this with the fact that our world is much better off with these organizations and their efforts, than it would be without them.   However, it is now time for them to strive for a much better report card in the future. After all,  'TO WHOM MUCH IS GIVEN, MUCH IS EXPECTED."

Belonging to all our future decision makers, I remain