Anthropomorphizing of animals is a great way to teach a lesson in life to a kid, and it is amenable to picture books and audiovisual presentation, but it still lacks a social event that organized religion provides, like a church. And there is no political movement, whereas religious people think that god is bigger and more powerful than any government, and this leads to anti-government attitudes.

Maybe the social event and political aspects of religion can be dispensed with after a certain age. After all, when a kid is old enough to understand those things he'll be old enough to understand science. He'll probably be going to school.