given the rise in the number of abandoned pets and animal abuse cases in the city animal lovers and veterinarians have started organising pet care awareness programmes in schools the first was held at a school in kharghar where students were informed about the dos and donts of keeping a petthe children got first hand training about how to interact with a pet dog kharghar vet dr amit patil conducted an interactive session with the children of vibgyor school in kharghar recently we decided to train smaller children since they should learn how to deal with them from a young age he saidwe educated the kids about how to keep a pet clean getting it dewormed and vaccinated ensuring that it they are taken for exercise regularly and being kind to them also to care and attend to injured or sick animals he saidduring festivals like diwali animals get afraid with the loud sound of crackers many times animals are also injured by firecworksnoisy fireworks must be avoided if one has pets and children at home the session not only helped children but also the teaching staff he addedanimal activist aarti chauhan who has conducted such sessions in the past has found them to be extremely productive the response has always been good and we find that teaching children to be compassionate towards animals yields good results they in turn teach their parents as well she said