Are you concerned about your kids and their behaviour towards animals? Research has shown that serial killers have 14 distinguishing characteristics. Jeffrey Dahmer, sadistic murderer of 16 boys had 7 of these traits. Apparent from a young age, serial rapists and murderers both have a common denominator which is cruelty to animals.
Which brings me to the next subject - how kids should interact with their pets. Now there are many myths in this department, and one that comes to mind is the new puppy which is acquired as a ‘playmate’ for a child. This is all very well if the games are controlled but it seems nowadays that kids are encouraged to rough and tumble and scream around like wild things which will hype the pup up and turn it into a monster as well!  This will be good fun for the puppy because it’s got a tough outer coating but the child will come off second best because Mommy’s Little Angel is going to be jumped on, knocked over, nipped and scratched until he yells blue murder. And then guess what usually happens next? The innocent little animal is cruelly banned to a cold, empty court-yard for out of control behaviour which worsens in ‘jail’ …  so next step is to dump it at the SPCA.  This is animal cruelty parents - a pup is not a cure for your kids’ Hyperactive Deficit Disorder.

Then there are those kids who get pleasure from jumping onto a sleeping dog, trying to poke it in the eye or any other forms of animal cruelty, albeit in a seemingly harmless form. The ideal response from the unfortunate dog is not to react but to remove itself from harm’s way - unfair on the dog? Yes.  But wait … the parents of that child should be put to sleep for not raising their offspring to know better!

Parents set an example for their kids

Kids witnessing violence or cruelty in the home are likely to imitate the behaviour themselves so please set a good example. It’s not OK to beat the dog for digging or kick the cat for messing … it won’t stop the behaviour anyhow.

And if your youngster pulls wings off butterflies, stamps on spiders, squashes frogs, starves his hamster, tortures the cat, or worse still, family pets keep mysteriously dying or disappearing…. catch a wake up and get help fast to stop any further acts of animal cruelty.

Parents, you are powerful role models so teach your children well. Teach them kindness and compassion; teach them to be gentle and caring and to love and respect all creatures great and small because you certainly don’t want to raise a serial killer … do you?!