The results presented here derive from a pilot study to evaluate a children’s humane education programme in Mauritania. Data were collected in a community where there is a high dependence on working donkeys, and where productive animals such as goats are also common. A questionnaire of anthrozooic attitudes was developed which consisted of twelve zoocentric and twelve anthropocentric statements. The children were asked to respond ‘TRUE’, ‘FALSE’ or ‘NOT SURE’ to each statement. The questionnaires were administered to 63 primary school children (30 girls, 28 boys, 5 not specified) ranging in age from 7 to 13 years (median = 9).
Interval level measures were constructed from the data using a Rasch modelling approach. Initial analysis indicated that there was no difference in anthrozooic attitudes between boys and girls (t(56) = 0.74, p = 0.47), however it was noted that there was significantly more variation in the distribution of boy’s scores (F(27,29) = 14.98, p = 0.00). The reliability of the data was also found to be greater for boys (α = 0.83) than it was for girls (α = 0.45).
To investigate these observations separate measures were constructed for zoocentric and anthropocentric statements. It was found that there was a significant correlation between these measures for the boys (r = 0.60, n = 28, p = 0.00), but unexpectedly this was not the case for the girls (r = -0.09, n = 30, p = 0.65). Analysis of differential item functioning revealed that boys were much more likely to endorse statements that reflect a specific interaction with animals (animals are only important when they can earn you money; hurting animals for fun is wrong). By contrast girls were more likely to endorse more general principles that perhaps indicate less familiarity with animals (animals must always obey their owners; people must work to help animals).
These results suggest that boys in this community have a more developed system of anthrozooic attitudes that result from greater contact and involvement in the care of animals. The implications will be discussed from a humane education perspective.