Teaching that protecting animals is cool

When Woodmere Middle School students walked into the library for a visit from animal rescue group, Rescue Ink, two men with tattoos were standing at the front of the room and a tiny white Maltese named Jordan was scurrying around in a custom-made wheelchair.

Joe Panz and Johnny O, two of the three Rescue Ink founding members, donned T-shirts with the slogan “Abusers are Losers” that barely covered their tattoos. A video that shows what their average day is like began the assembly on Oct. 26.

Rescue Ink was formed in 2007 when eight men joined forces in a fight to rescue animals. Members meet every week in Floral Park to discuss current rescues. As a slogan on the group’s their website reads, “This ain’t your mother’s rescue group.”

Valerie Zimmerman, a sixth grader at Woodmere enjoyed the video and photographs that were shown of the adoption events Rescue Ink holds. “I liked when they showed video clips and talked about what they do,” Zimmerman said. “I would like to rescue animals and see how they do their job.”

The video also touched upon how Rescue Ink not only saves abused dogs but horses, chickens and various other animals as well.

“What we do is very stressful and dangerous,” Panz said. “We defend those who can’t defend themselves. We don’t just rescue animals, we rescue anyone or anything in need.”

Kristin Krempasky and Diane Bentivegna, eighth grade teachers at the middle school, put the assembly together as part of the Humane Service Learning Program that began last year.

“We’ve partnered with the Town of Hempstead Animal Shelter in order to teach students how to treat animals,” Krempasky said. “We’ve also done food and supplies drives as well as collected financial donations throughout the school.”

Eighth graders Brianna Moran-Person and Jessica Policastro presented Rescue Ink with a check for $602 that came from a student fundraiser. Rescue Ink operates mainly through donations and money out of the member’s pockets.

In September, National Geographic aired a six-part series on Rescue Ink that was shown in 371 million households, 171 countries and 26 languages.

“Before the show, our donations and amount of cases were about equal,” Panz said. “After the show, donations dropped while the amount of cases skyrocketed because people thought we were rich.”

Panz said the show did better than anyone had planned and that they are currently talking with several different television networks to broadcast a weekly television show about the group.

After the assembly, the students were presented with Rescue Ink Junior Pet Detective certificates and pledged to protect animals from abuse and neglect.

“What the guys are doing is a great thing,” Andrew Aliav, an eighth grader at Woodmere said. “They should keep doing it as long as possible.”