Cub Scout Animal Carer Badge (Pets At Home)

Cub Scouts Animal Carer Activity Badge (Pets at Home)

Pets and animals need a lot of care. Your Animal Carer badge will show everyone how well you look after your four-legged friends.

Pets at Home are one of The Scouts longest serving partners, supporting the Cub Scout Animal Carer and Beaver Scout Animal Friends badges. Pets at Home want to encourage great pet care and responsible pet ownership in young people. They choose to do this through The Scouts because of its lengthy history in educating young people as active and responsible citizens who respect life in all its forms.

How to earn the badge:

1. Complete one of these:

• Take care of an animal for at least two months. Give it the correct foods, and learn to recognise common traits and habits including how to groom, clean and exercise the animal.
• Help to care for a farm animal for at least two months. Know the correct foods to give it and be able to recognise common illnesses. Learn what special care you need to give before and after the birth of farm animals.

2. Then choose two of these to do:

• Keep a record of bird, animal or insect life in your garden, local area or park. Keep pictures, sketches, photographs or audio recordings. Do this for at least three months.
• Visit a zoo, wildlife park, animal sanctuary or rescue centre. Find out about some of the animals you see. What are their feeding habits and natural habitats?
• Join an animal, bird or wildlife society. Either take part in one of its activities or make progress in any award scheme it offers.
• Find out about dangers that threaten wildlife in their natural habitat. Make a poster, collage or drawing or tell other Cub Scouts what you found out.
• Learn and understand what you need to do and be aware of when deciding to own a pet.

Top tips:

The animal you care for could be a dog, cat, gerbil, guinea pig, fish, bird, rabbit, lamb or even a stick insect! 

This can include the looking after of wild animals such as birds. Caring for them would include feeding them and looking after a bird bath, for example.

Maybe you could help look after a family member’s pet.

Even though there are lots of computer games and things that show you what it’s like to care for an animal, these won’t count for this badge. You will need to learn to take care of a real, live animal.