Supporting 4-H Youth Through the Sale of Their Market Animal Project

By Carrie Shrier

Every year we see pictures of smiling 4-H youth showing their market animals at local fairs and other events. These animals are a key part of many children’s experiences in 4-H. Often times they represent children’s first experience as the primary caregiver for animals and youth have spent a lot of time and energy caring for and raising these projects. However, after the showring and the auction comes the reality of having to say goodbye to their prize-winning animals as they leave fair and head to be processed. What can you do as a parent or volunteer to help support children in understanding and being prepared for this eventuality?

While many individuals go out of their way to shield children from the reality of death, when you are raising market animals, you cannot avoid the fact that they produce food for humans. There is no pretending the dog has gone to a farm in the country to have room to run or replacing a dead pet goldfish with a new one to avoid the conversation all together. It’s important to know that this fact is not harmful: the reality is that death is a part of life. All living creatures will eventually die. Even fruits and vegetables stop growing when we pick and eat them.

While it’s understandable to want to shield children from the reality of animal processing, being transparent and clearly explaining everything makes it easier in the long run. It should never come as a surprise to children that they are raising market animals that will be sold for food at the end of the summer or year. When 4-H youth participate in animal projects, they learn throughout the year about the how-to’s of raising animals: vaccinations, keeping records, animal care, adding up costs and weighing them against future profits. Selling the animal is part of that equation of profits and the explanation of what it means to raise a market animal makes the biggest difference when market day comes along.

What can parents, volunteers and leaders do to help prepare youth for the difficulty of separating from their market animals? Washington State University Extension’s fact sheet titled “Preparing Youth for the Sale of their Market Livestock Project” suggests the following steps to help youth be ready for market day.

• Prepare youth ahead of time: Club leaders can help club members prepare for their feelings in pre-fair meetings. Parents and leaders can talk to youth about supporting each other, looking for signs of difficulty, and how to offer support and encouragement as needed. It may be helpful to talk to a friend who is a good listener, offer hugs or words of encouragement. This can be a great opportunity to teach youth about how to recognize signs of stress and grief in others. Have youth predict how they might react to the sale of their animal and write or draw their thoughts on paper.
• Teach emotional literacy: Talk to youth about feelings and emotions. Have them predict how they might feel about the sale of their animal and encourage them to write it down or draw their thoughts on paper. Discuss why it’s important to learn how to manage and express feelings appropriately. How do they like to be supported when they’re sad? Talk about how you can support someone who is feeling sad about the sale of their animal.
• Talk with older youth: Encourage owners of market animals to interview older youth who have sold their animals previously. Ask them about their experiences, how they felt and what helped them through that time. Create skits together to discuss different feelings and their reactions to the sale of project animals.
• Prepare and plan: Talk with your child about how the day of the auction and end of fair will go. Time is spent preparing youth to show their animals, and likewise, youth need to be prepared for how and when they will be saying good-bye to their animal. Remind them of what is going to happen and what day it will be. Try to help ensure youth are eating and sleeping as well as possible during the week of fair, as this is a very stressful and busy week aside from saying goodbye to their animals.
• Parting is inevitable: Simply put, humans live longer than animals, so regardless of an animal’s purpose, we have to part with our pets and livestock. It’s understandable and very normal to have feelings of loss and sadness when we have to part with animals. However, it should be a comfort to know that youth have made their animal’s life the best it could be by caring for their animals humanely and providing them with an excellent home and proper care.

4-H market animal projects are, by their nature, terminal. They have a defined end time at the end of the 4-H project year, and it is ok to be sad about this. However, preparation and adult support can make a big difference in a youth’s experience as they cope with the end of their market animal projects.