Pets and People and Children

Whether you have birds or dogs or cats you really need to use common sense when it comes to children. I have so many concerns about children being alone with pets. We treat the pets like people but then seem surprised when the beloved pet acts like an animal . Here is an example. Mrs. Jones has two young boys. They are 7 and 9. She decides they are playing nicely with the Dusty the dog, watching t.v. etc . So she leaves them to play while she picks up the house and throws in a load of laundry ( it could be Mr. Jones ,too) . When she hears a sudden yelp and a child crying. She rushes back to the rompus room to see the 7 year old holding his eye.  The eye is bleeding and the 9 year old  yells as Dusty "bad dog, bad dog!"  Well, Dusty has never harmed a soul until this very day. What transpired? Did the boys pull Dusty's tail, step on his back or poke him in the face. Did they have food and tease him with it . Will Mrs Jones ever get the story? That's the problem.

Guidelines for youngsters and pets are as follows:

• children under 11 should not be left alone with a pet

• food should be stored, children should ask can they give food

• tell your adult  friends and the children the rules

Children in the plural often act to provoke or antagonize the pet. This is especially true if they don't know the rules. They might not provoke their dog at home but consider testing the rule at a neighbor's house. So, often but not always in these situations the children have caused the problem. When a solitary child is with the dog if is more frequent that the dog is the problem. Once again ,without an adult present you simply  don't know. And children won't always tell the truth in this case because they think they will get in trouble. However, in most states if a child is bitten in the face( near the brain)  by a dog (even with a current Rabies Vaccination) the children's parents are within their rights to have the dog tested for Rabies. This means euthanasia , remove the brain and send it to the state lab. So, you would really want the facts, wouldn't you? If there is proof of rabies and the child was bitten on a lower portion of the body ( away from the brain) and the wound is not especially traumatic then the dog can be observed for 10 days and that may be the end of the incident for the dog. Bite wounds can easily become infected and so the child should always go to the pediatrician. The dog that bites once has learned how to bite and often bites again unless there is a correction of the behavior.