Activities for the Junior Girl Scout Pet Care Badge

Scouting is all about broadening a person's horizons through education, and badges are a vital component in learning lifelong skills. The Junior Girl Scout's Pet Badge inspires compassion and thoughtful decision making. Knowing how to provide the best pet care involves many different aspects from illness to overpopulation to proper nutrition, according to Ellen Becker in "Badge Requirements."

  1. Working With Shelter Animals

    • Many shelter animals were once someone's pet. Knowing why they ended up homeless is the best way to prevent it from happening. Shelters nationwide encourage visits for an interactive, hands-on experience learning about pet overpopulation, the benefit of spaying and neutering and how to safely approach an animal. Volunteers are a very important part of shelter operation. Contact your local organization for their age policy. This activity satisfies badge requirement number 10 when you share your experience with a parent or troop leader.

    Create a Pet Scrapbook

    • Fulfill badge requirement number 9 by making a scrapbook of your pet that tells all about this wonderful family member. Pictures can be the focal point for showing how the pet has progressed through the years. Equally valuable are personal thoughts and stories that can be written right on the same page or attached separately. Becker suggests including other examples of pet care, such as emergency information, licenses and veterinary records.

    Study Pet Overpopulation

    • Pet overpopulation is a tremendous problem because people do not spay and neuter their animals. Achieve badge requirement number 4 by researching how many litters one female dog can have in her lifetime. Find out how many babies she can have with each litter and calculate that for the total number of unplanned animals that will likely end up at the shelter. Determine how you would care for so many at the same time and then find responsible homes for each one. Document your findings along with the added input from your vet or local shelter director, says Becker.

    Keeping Pets Healthy

    • Spend some time with an veterinarian to fulfill badge requirement number 5. Learn how to recognize the signs of a sick pet, which diseases can be spread to other animals, when to have checkups and vaccinations and how to give medications such as ear drops and pills. Knowing when and how to find treatment in an emergency is especially important. The vet can provide phone numbers for the poison control hotline, animal control and the veterinary clinic.