Children and pets

Children when young have no qualms or fear of anything they do. In fact they are fearless! If they fall down, they just pick themselves and go. They learn from what we as adults show them. They get their fears, prejudices, likes and dislikes from the adults. I haven't seen a single child that is not influence by reactions around them. Where is this going you may ask.

My dog gets regular walk every day twice a day for at least 30 minutes. He loves his walks, he loves to greet people and loves other dogs and kids. Picture this scene, while walking the dog, you see a child. Two reaction will occur:
1) The child gets really curious and wants to come and pat the dog
2) The parent of the child will say, 'he's going to bite you' to prevent the child from coming near.

The second scenario is really upsetting. It is offensive to hear that my dog is aggressive when he isn't! This is where the child takes the cue and develops fear in dogs. Yes I understand some parents do not like their children to be exposed to animals. Probably looking at an animal raises fear in the parents..which I think is ridiculous.

Where is this leading? Well, during christmas, my in laws were over in Malaysia. I also love to take photos especially where there are animals involved. I managed to take this great picture of my niece and zoe the boxer. This photo shows the unconditional love of zoe and my niece. Personally, animals can teach us so much and the kids gain so much from them.

care for your pets

It is the New Year. Yesterday I visited a puppy that is paralyzed due to irresponsible owners. Let me start from the beginning. This puppy was first adopted out by an independant rescue organization to a family. They probably thought, it's great to have a puppy, we can play with it, he's so cute. However, a few months into the adoption, the puppy was rescued by another independant animal rescue organization because, this puppy have somehow become paralyzed on his hind quarters. The organization when questioned what had happen to the animal, the owners replied, the puppy got caught and hit by the electric gate and thereby causing damage to his hind quarters. I am doubtful to the story that was told. I suspect it may be that someone had taken a stick and hit the puppy so hard that caused deep nerve damage. I was told that the owners felt so bad that RM500 was given to the organization to aid him. Honestly, RM500 is NOT enough for this puppy. He needs constant care. He needs a wheelchair and the owners that had him should be made accountable for the damage that was caused to this puppy.

How can something like this happen? But it also begs the question, how are people treating their pets. Many times you see owners letting out the dogs from the gate, allowing them to roam around the neighbourhood without supervision. I've seen dogs that have been reprimanded with sticks. This is irresponsible behaviour of the owners. Dogs are not like cats. They require attention and love.

It also poses another question. How thorough are the independant pet rescue when adopting out the dogs or cats? Yes I acknowledge their effort to get the stray dogs out from the streets into a good home. Yes I acknowledge that monitoring will be hard but when an organization is set up for this purpose, one would expect that monitoring the pets that have been adopted out is part and parcel of it. It isn't the case of OUT OF SIGHT OUT OF MIND. It's not as simple as I've got one less dog or cat to adopt out and concentrate on the one that next dog or cat to be adopted out.

Every pet owner should treat their pets humanely. Raising your hand on your pet is not the right way to train your pet. It is cruel, unnecessary and may caused physical damage to your pet as the puppy mentioned above. Owners or future pet owners have to be educated on how to own pets. They need to be aware that having a pet becomes a part of your family. In fact they are your family member once you bring them into your home. I find nurturing my pet is the best training. It creates stability in my pet and I get loved ten folds.