I heartily endorse keeping and using animals in the classroom for their outstanding educational and aesthetic value. However, I am concerned that your Creature Features article and lesson plans give no caveats on releasing non-native species. Luna moths, frogs, and butterflies are mentioned as good animals to raise in the classroom, but what do you do with them once they're grown? Releasing them outside is tempting, but potentially catastrophic to the environment (see the citizen science project involving ladybugs--the introduced species are impacting the natives).

I also see the benefits of having animals in the classroom but only if it is accomplished in a purposeful, ethical and responsible way. One major concern to the enviromnent is invasive species, even if an animal is native to the US does not mean that is native to a local area and even species such a bull frogs have almost lead to the extinction of native pond turtles and other species. Ultimate dispoosal of classroom pets need to be considered BEFORE any creature is acquired and if you are not committed to keeping an animal through its ientire life or responsibly disposing of it, don't even get started.

My daughter is a 4th grade teacher in New York State, where the 4th grade curriculum includes introduction to the concept of biosphere. My daughter is a philosophical vegetarian who was distressed with the accepted strategy for teaching about the biosphere, which involved creating a terrarium/aquarium from soda bottles and including small fish. The fish came by mail, and rarely with all the poor fish still alive - at the end of the unit, teachers "disposed" of the remaining fish, if any had survived. My daughter already has a classroom tortoise (Rylant, after one class' favorite author), but realized more was necessary. She began a vermiculture project. The kids have really gotten into it, conducting any number of experiements with the amount of worm castings created. One budding scientist found what he took to be sprouted seeds (they probably were . . .) when they did their first harvest of castings, and has set up mini greenhouses for each seed with daily observations recorded scrupulously. The kids, along with my daughter and the school's librarian, have started a blog about their worms (http://imabookworm.edublogs.org/). This is a super classroom animal project that does not involve premature death of animals or release of non-native species, and teaches ecologically sound behaviors.