Pets teach kids to be responsible

Johanan Supramaniam, 13, spends a lot of time reading up on how to better care for his pets.

Thirteen-year-old Johanan Supramaniam is serious about caring for his pets – five rescued cats, two rabbits, a softshell turtle and a family of winter white hamsters. His mother Shireen Sudhakaran believes her son has an affinity for animals, and they have seen how Johanan has taken good care of his pets.

“He takes it upon himself to look after their wellbeing and he’s always reading up on how to better care for them,” says Shireen.

Most young children are fascinated by animals and it is admittedly an endearing sight to chance upon a child interacting with a puppy or kitten. But few children are like Johanan, and need to be taught how to care for their pets. Johanan was only three when he asked for a fish after many excursions to the pet shops.

“He seemed to really enjoy observing the animals. One day, he just asked for some fish. My condition to him was that he had to be serious about caring for them himself. He agreed and we bought him some and kept them in a basin outside the house,” says Shireen, 43.

Hamsters came next, when Johanan turned six. “A friend had given us a hamster’s cage and Johanan wanted some hamsters to go with it, plus we thought that it was time he learned more about other animals. I was a little bit concerned that the interest wouldn’t last, but he’s since shown us how responsible he can be,” relates Shireen.

Johanan’s father, insurance agent Godwin Supramaniam, 56, believes that his son has learnt about being responsible from owning pets. In fact, Johanan likes animals so much that he spent his last school holidays helping out at their family friend ’s pet shop.

“Some parents think that caring for a pet is a waste of time, and that their kids should be studying instead. But there’s more to education than getting all the As. It’s also a matter of learning about life,” he says.

According to US-based pet protection organisation ASPCA (Aspca.org), adult supervision is key when it comes to pairing children with pets.

Some young kids can’t distinguish between living beings and inanimate objects – they may not be able to understand that pulling on a pet’s tail will cause it pain or harm.

The ASPCA Guide to Kids and Pets advises parents not to ignore or dismiss pet-unfriendly actions. Stay-at-home mum Karen Loong, 43, says parents need to be hands-on when it comes to teaching young children how to interact with animals.

A while back, Loong found her daughter, Cahaya Rain Thomas, playing a little too roughly with the family dog. Before she could intervene, the dog had taken a frustrated snap at the five-year-old’s face. “Her face was bloody and we had to take her to the hospital. Thankfully, it was only a minor injury. We both learnt a great lesson that day. Since then, I’ve talked to her about the importance of treating animals as she would like to be treated. She now knows not to taunt them or treat them like toys,” she says, stressing that they didn’t blame their 10-year-old dog for injuring Cahaya.

Still, they didn’t expect Cahaya to fully understand how to treat her pets as “at five, children are more into playing than anything else.” But Cahaya proved that her parents had underestimated her when they adopted a kitten recently.

“When she was born, we already had two dogs in the family, so she didn’t have to learn how to care for them from scratch. After adopting the kitten for her, we noticed that she started to focus on something other than her own needs. I think that being the only child, Cahaya often feels that it’s ‘her against us.’ Having pets and involving her in their care allows her to play at ‘being the boss.’ She often ‘babies’ the kitten, which somehow teaches her a bout nurturing,” Loong explains.

Cahaya now lives with three cats, two dogs and two ball python snakes, and she is learning to care for them. “Her attention span is short, so I make her partially responsible. It took awhile, but now she will even scoop ‘poop’!” says Loong.

No child’s play

Father-of-two Mohammad Nazri Hassan Basri, 45, says parents have to lead the way in caring for pets. “Buying a pet for children isn’t advisable unless the parents are committed to caring for the animal. Kids won’t learn about responsibility just by owning a pet.

“Parents must be the ones to show their child how to be responsible. Only then will he or she learn about empathy and respect for another living being.

“Children get bored too easily. I’ve heard of many cases where parents buy on impulse just because their child thinks a certain pet is cute. But when you bring it home and you don’t have the patience to bond with it or give it the proper food or care, how will the animal survive? That’s just plain neglect and it’s happening all around us,” he says.

In fact, the university laboratory coordinator has been trying to get his 10-year-old son Muhammad Daniel Amir to become more involved with cleaning up after the extended members of their household – sugar gliders, hedgehogs, hamsters, birds, skinks, water snakes and a scorpion, gecko and turtle.