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wcocaboose wrote:Pets:
These are one of the greatest thread generating traps available in the instance. They will often reset enrage timers completely, and are capable of applying the laughter buff. This is a buff for both your child and yourself. This buff, decreases or resets enrage timers, and tank rage, as well as increases overall happiness This increases all players enjoyment of the instance.

Eh. This one bothers me a little. I have seen far too many instances of parents buying their child a pet and washing their hands of it, and the pet ending up on my table as a result. I've had to euthanize multiple animals - far too many - for child-related injuries, like a toddler or young child yanking on a dog / cat's tail hard enough to sever the spinal cord or cause significant damage to internal organs. I've seen dozens upon dozens of 'accidental' poisonings, where children have fed animals toxic food (like chocolate).

Two weeks ago I was even working behavioral therapy on a dog with severe aggression issues, because the owner's three year old child had been throwing rocks at / hitting the dog for so long, it finally snapped and tried to eat the child. I would too, if I was that dog, and yet, this young dog is the one I'm probably going to have to euthanize, when it should be that useless, spoiled brat of a child I put my needle in.

Despite the common adage, children and pets do not mix well, for one very specific reason; children lack the respect to recognize the animal as another living being. They treat it as a toy, especially when it is given as such by their parents. Children should not get pets until they are older, and absolutely, they need to be either supervised, or taught the proper way in which to handle animals.

Because, sadly, most people do not bother, and then I have to kill their animal.

Well, due to the fact that it took me quite a while to conceive my son (finally did in 2008), my mom got me our dog as a college graduation present (in 2006.) So, in our household, the dog came first. The first thing she did when we brought him home from the hospital is gave him tons of kisses, effectively making him HERS!! Yes, we occasionally had issues with him giving her things she shouldn't have, like crackers, but for a three year old, he's pretty good with her. He just needs to learn that she doesn't want that much love sometimes.

I've only ever given one pet up after having issues with it, and I gave him up because I would have been dumping my responsibilities to him on my mom and dad (this was back in 2001-2002.) He went to a great home though where he sleeps on a california king size bed with his owners.

IMO -- you don't give a pet as a gift, it has to be a family wide thing, that the whole FAMILY takes responsibility for. Having a pet first before the child is teaching him that she is part of the family so when the time comes and she passes on, when we get another pet he'll know exactly how the home is run.

Shalandai wrote:Eh. This one bothers me a little. I have seen far too many instances of parents buying their child a pet and washing their hands of it, and the pet ending up on my table as a result. I've had to euthanize multiple animals - far too many - for child-related injuries, like a toddler or young child yanking on a dog / cat's tail hard enough to sever the spinal cord or cause significant damage to internal organs. I've seen dozens upon dozens of 'accidental' poisonings, where children have fed animals toxic food (like chocolate).

Two weeks ago I was even working behavioral therapy on a dog with severe aggression issues, because the owner's three year old child had been throwing rocks at / hitting the dog for so long, it finally snapped and tried to eat the child. I would too, if I was that dog, and yet, this young dog is the one I'm probably going to have to euthanize, when it should be that useless, spoiled brat of a child I put my needle in.

Despite the common adage, children and pets do not mix well, for one very specific reason; children lack the respect to recognize the animal as another living being. They treat it as a toy, especially when it is given as such by their parents. Children should not get pets until they are older, and absolutely, they need to be either supervised, or taught the proper way in which to handle animals.

Because, sadly, most people do not bother, and then I have to kill their animal.

Whaaa...That's.. sad. :I

I hope that kid got some sort of punishment for torturing that dog. I hate hearing animal abuse stories, they're so helpless.

Shalandai wrote:Two weeks ago I was even working behavioral therapy on a dog with severe aggression issues, because the owner's three year old child had been throwing rocks at / hitting the dog for so long, it finally snapped and tried to eat the child. I would too, if I was that dog, and yet, this young dog is the one I'm probably going to have to euthanize, when it should be that useless, spoiled brat of a child I put my needle in.

I do, very strongly, disagree with this statement, it should be the parents that should be punished first, and then if the child is of a certain age and development. If the child is under 5 then the punishment should be given soley to the parents for letting things happen. The most my son does to my dog is try and love on her too much. He doesn't understand that miss Gidget doesn't like cuddles and strong hugs.

As for chocolate, yes, it is dangerous, and that is why it is never in reach of my son. Also why would parents leave chocolate unattended, come on, it has theobromide which is a stimulant (the stuff that is poisonous to dogs.)

Since this post was originally intended as a joke I am going to split it and put the serious topic in the Dear Arabella forum.

It's a er of proper teaching of the children, and responsibility of parents. My 2 yr old niece, loves to play with the family dog, she learned very fast though that she doesn't ride him, hit him or choke him. Even at that young age, they can understand no. We also try to discourage letting her feed the dog. A couple times she's wanted to be the one to give meeko his biscuit, and while he know to take it gently from her, she doesn't understand yet what she can and cannot give to the dog. (Raisins are no longer allowed in the house )
Sometimes though, I feel that the adults are worse then children. If you want to have a pet that requires little maintenance get a gold fish. Don't adopt a kitten and then leave it outside after one week without feeding it.

Shalandai wrote:I work in a critical area of the health care industry - if I make a mistake at work, it doesn't just mean lost money, or customer complaints, or a slap on the wrist from my boss. If I make a mistake at work - and I'm not just talking about an error, but not responding / reacting quickly enough - then lives are lost.

Hah! Well done, sirs. You have a good memory.

However, you'll note that I never stated it wasn't human lives ( ), and I do work in a critical care and emergency hospital. I don't deal with mundane tasks like vaccines and flea treatments; cases I deal with are hit-by-cars, cruelty cases and abused animals, poisonings, or surgeries beyond the scope of your local family veterinarian, like gastroplexies.

As I believe I mentioned in another thread, I'm currently undergoing continuing education to upgrade my license for a very niche area of the industry; specifically, dangerously aggressive canines. The last several months I have been working more and more with the kind of animals that face destruction if not rehabilitated to a point where they are no longer a threat to human beings.

Ah, well, I wish you luck in upgrading your license. You're doing a good thing, well done.

I just give my dogs beer and potato chips instead of chocolate...better bonding and hanging out while we watch TV. Their beer burps are quite impressive.

As far as little children injuring pets, well, although unfortunate, it's gonna happen. Children aren't born with the wisdom of knowing right from wrong, the damage they can do or knowing their own strength. It has to be 'taught'. One stupid little neighbor kid was throwing rocks at my car one day, and blew out the window along with creating dents. His mother promptly brought him over to inform me what had happened and had him apologize to me, and they paid for the repair. Very honorable of her. The kid just thought of the car like he does a tree. He didn't know it was wrong then, but he does now, because he got 'schooled'. Perhaps it will keep him from 'stoning' cats and dogs too. Luckily, we have a surplus of cats and dogs in the world, but better supervision by the parent and teaching their kids early on the 'why' we don't hurt the pets may help, but some young children are still going to do it because they think its funny.

The funny-odd-strange thing to me though Steve, is that today it seems like I see more and more kids treat animals this way in general. Why? What magically changed over the years to create such modern day terror toddlers and rug-rats? I grew up with animals since I was knee high to a grasshopper. It never even occurred to me at that age to even think of treating animals like some of these kids these day do.