Who would you punish?

debodun

debodun

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Location
way upstate in New York, USA
Put the situation that you're in charge of a small child and a pet. The child pulls a tail, hits on the head, squeezes or otherwise causes discomfort to the animal and the animal retaliates by biting or scratching the child. Who would get punished?
 
Children should be taught at a very early age, not to pull/grab/hit animals. We taught our daughter, and she learned to treat animals with respect.

We also taught our dogs to take treats with a "gentle" mouth, and to sit/wait for their meal and to go out to the backyard. Had taught our daughter to give them the sit/stay command as well.

I'm pleased to say that there were no incidents with children visitors and our dogs.
 
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I remember telling our very small kids all the time "be gentle with the kitty puss", it was kind of embarrassing because the cat soon decided his name was KittyPuss. Oddly enough he never bit one of the kids but that was the first thing he did to DH as soon as DH got home from work. First thing my husband said when he saw the kitten was "Oh what a dandy lion, great name right? When he bit my husband he threw (not a long way) the cat at the couch and screamed you filthy beast, also a great name. But he was forever Kittypuss!
 
We had a dog virtually all the time the kids were growing up. We got the dogs as puppies, so they could grow up with the kids, and get used to the kids antics. At the same time, we stressed the need for the kids to treat the dog with care and Never make any aggressive moves around the dog. As a result, we never had any issues.

However, getting an adult dog from an animal shelter, and having small children in the house is a risky move, IMO.
 
I wouldn't punish either. I would separate them so they can't get at each other and would speak with the child. It does matter how "small" this child is. No point in telling the pet anything. It would just laugh at you. šŸ˜¹ I would keep them separate for the rest of the day.
 
No one. Except the child would have the importance of treating a pet properly, and be advised that the consequence of not doing so include injuries and the pet being afraid of him/her.

The child would also have consequences clearly spelled out (besides the natural ones) if s/he does not treat the pet the way the child has been instructed to do.
 
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