Sage Advice For Pet Adopters

We were delighted to see the May 7th article titled "Bring Home The Best Pet" in the PARADE magazine in our Sunday newspapers. Partly, it was because the authors recommended guinea pigs as good, kid-friendly pets because they're active during the day, highly sociable, big enough to be handled safely by most children, and will live five to seven years with proper care.

What we really liked was the authors' advice and comments on responsible pet adoption -- especially after the influx of guinea pigs we've taken in this year from owner surrenders...usually from families where kids regrettably lost interest in a pet. (Recent conversations with some of the dog and cat rescues in Connecticut revealed that they're seeing the same thing.)

But getting back to the article...

Authors Sarah Wilson and Brian Kilcommons talked about pet adoptions ranging from dogs and cats to exotics to birds to reptiles and fish. And some of the points they made likely received a chorus of "Here! Here!" from pet adopters and animal rescues around the country. We'll highlight a few here:

• "Adopting a living creature must never be a spontaneous decision."
• "As a parent, you must be fully prepared to take responsibility for the animal....No matter what lessons you hope your child will learn from this experience, the animal doesn't exist to teach. Any living creature in your home is the adult's responsibility."
• Include children in the pre-adoption research process, preparing for the pet's arrival, and tasks in the daily care routine that they can manage. Adopting an animal (any animal) is a great way to teach your kids about responsibility, but keep in mind that there are some tasks that small bodies with small hands can't do.
• Keep pets in a common area, not in a child's room, so their health and care can be monitored, they can be part of the family's activity, and a child's handling of the pet can be supervised by an adult.

If someone you know is thinking about adopting a pet for the first time for their family, encourage them to check out the PARADE article online. 

If you have stories to share about your own experiences with adopting pets, or additional tips about kids and pets, use the Comments link below to let us (and others) know.

Comments

[Diana]

We have a three-year-old son and currently own one cat, who we recently adopted when his previous family decided that having three kids, a dog, and a cat was just "too much." Their loss was our blessing, as we love Max dearly, and had lost our previous cat last fall and felt the hole left by being without a family pet. However, when I saw the Parade article (and then read about it again here) I couldn't help but think that it's not fair to Max that he had to go to a new home because his family tired of having him after three years.

He seems to have adjusted well to our home and family, and has established a friendship with our son (even sleeping on his loft bed during naps sometimes), but as an animal lover I still am sad that he was discarded. I am glad, however, that they looked for a good home rather than just dumping him off somewhere and not knowing what would happen to him. (Not all of our local shelters here in Spokane, WA are no-kill shelters.)

Thanks for spreading the very important message about what we, the adult humans in our families, owe to our pets: responsibility for their care, sensitivity to their needs, and respect for their status as living beings rather than objects.

[Tumerica]

Exactly! Do parents realize that a pet is not a small, random purchase, in the same way a toy would be? I know a family who actually had their rabbit starve to death because their son did not feed him, and the pet was kept in the son's room--they basically were not aware of it until it was too late. This was worse because they had only joint custody of the child, so his visits--and feedings--were more infrequent. Sorry to tell such an awful story--but the point is, a pet is not a toy in any form whatsoever. If your child has a pet, then that pet is yours first and the child's second. Kudos to the author of that article in Parade, which, by the way, is the single most read publication in the U.S. Let's hope lots of families read it and got the message. And double-kudos to the writers of this fine blog! I'll be back to visit again.