Inside Immanuel Baptist Church in Clinton, children awed with excitement when an Eurasian eagle-owl silently flapped its wings while sitting on Dan Breeding’s gloved hand.
The bird of prey from places such as Europe, Asia and the Middle East was one of several wild creatures brought to the church’s Vacation Bible School by Breeding, who is also known as Dan “The Animal Man.”
“Animals are more powerful than us in every single way, except for one — our brain,” he said. “We have the biggest brain. You know why? Because God created us in his image and according to his likeness.”
Breeding brought his “Wild Animal Encounters, Inc.,” to educate and entertain children and adults about animals and their relationship with God. The wildlife activist, animal behaviorist and motivational speaker began working with animals at the age of 13. He has worked with many exotic animals such as elephants, chimpanzees and alligators.
While speaking about the eagle-owl, he taught the audience that it does not turn its head completely around but can rotate it at 270 degrees.
“I had a third-grade teacher who could do that,” Breeding joked.
Although the owl can never read a book, it is able to see the words about a whole football field away. Breeding said humans are able to do it too because of the brain their creator gave them.
“Somebody just like you fed their brain, gained lots of knowledge and used that knowledge in a powerful way and invented something called the telescope or a pair of binoculars,” Breeding said.
He later walked around the church and allowed people to take selfies with their camera phones.
An African crested porcupine named “Barb Wire” was also presented. Breeding cleared up misconceptions about the animal shooting its quills. The nocturnal rodent sleeps in the day, but woke up to spend time inside the church. Visitors were amazed about the teeth, designed to not stop growing. To shape their teeth, the porcupines chew on the bones of dead animals and other things such as wood.
The last animal was a Burmese python. He rescued “Julia Squeezer” 16 years ago. It was very sickly with a respiratory infection.
“It happens a lot with these creatures because people don’t take care of them properly,” he said. “If you want a good pet, get a dog or a kitty cat. That makes a good pet. None of these animals are my pets. I have two dogs and two cats.”
He told everyone to make sure they’re the right person for a particular animal while holding the reptile from southeast Asia that’s expected to be 20 feet long in the future. Breeding spoke about the beginning of their bond together, which took about eight months.
“When I first rescued it, all it wanted to do was bite me,” Breeding recalled. “It struck out at me every time I walked in the reptile room. I put about $1,200 worth of rats in it and she started to calm down.”
Breeding spoke about the animals’ relationship with God using stories from the Bible. It contains serpents as symbol of evil, but are also known as symbols of fertility, life and healing. Ambulance and medical symbols also have a snake wrapped around a rod, which comes from Greek mythology for Asclepius, a diety related to healing and medicine.
“There’s a lot of drama surrounding the snake,” he said. “There’s a lot of falsity’s and myths surrounding the snake. This is a good news animal my friends.”
He told a Bible story involving Moses, the promised land and fiery serpents sent by God to bite unbelievers. They later ran to God to ask for mercy. Later the Lord told Moses to make a bronze serpent and put it on a pole, so everyone who looked at it could be saved.
Bible verses were also connected during his presentation to emphasize his point, including John 3:16 — “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Later he refereed to John 3:14 — “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up.”
“Do you understand what just happened in those verses? God has just redeemed his good creation, the serpent, for the second time and used it to stand for salvation, healing and rescue,” Breeding pointed out. “You see God is a God of redemption. To be lifted up and paralleled with Jesus, that’s a mighty fine spot to be, isn’t it?”
After the presentation, visitors took pictures with “The Animal Man” and Julia. Before Breeding showed the animals, the Rev. Tim Ameen, senior pastor, introduced him to the audience. Like other visitors, he enjoyed the show.
“I think it’s a wonderful special ministry and we were pleased to be able to offer this ministry,” Ameen said. “I look forward to what God is going to continue to do through those who were here tonight.”
Breeding thanked the church leaders for having the VBS program. Dan said he found Jesus at the age of 7 during a VBS program.
“For those of you who are sacrificing your time and sowing seeds into these children, thank you, from the bottom of my heart, because your efforts are impacting kids,” he said. “You really are.”
