Susan Arbogast’s second grade class at Marlinton Elementary School loves animals.

They have created a Public Service Announcement (PSA) video about the Pocahontas County Animal Shelter to enter in the Dog Whisperer Cesar Millan’s Mutt-i-grees PSA Contest.

Former MES VISTA Lucinda Tyler brought the idea to Arbogast after she saw an advertisement in Millan’s magazine.

“He has a foundation, and two animal foundations in New York and Yale University’s child studies program have all joined forces to help promote this contest,” Tyler said. “They pick four winners and then there is one grand prize winner out of that four that gets $10,000 for the school, a visit from Cesar Millan and a trip for four to New York to an event held by the animal foundations.”

The students all pitched in, filming video of dogs and cats with Flip video cameras. Tyler took the raw footage to High Rocks for Girls where Devin Preston edited the video for the PSA.

As part of the PSA, Arbogast implemented the Yale child studies program which focuses on children and animals.

“Susan has been conducting this program every Friday according to the Yale University program,” Tyler said. “It’s been remarkable. The kids just loved it.”

Tyler said she hopes to have a public viewing of the final video at the Pocahontas County Opera House. A date has not been determined.

Judging for the PSAs is as follows: 0-10 points for sincerity, 0-60 points for persuasion and 0-30 points for creativity.

Deadline for the video is October 26 and winners will be announced around November 26.

The students made a special trip to visit the animals at the shelter last week to drop off some treats and to make a donation.

Arbogast said the students had a coloring contest. Amanda Burns was the winner of the $50 provided by the Marlinton Rotary Club, and she elected to donate the money to the shelter.

Suzanne Stewart may be contacted at sastewart@pocahontastimes.com