Abuse/cruelty?

16 years ago

If you saw a young child slow dancing with their cat (child holding cat's front paws), would you consider that abuse/cruelty?

If you saw a young child slowly pulling the cat by its front paws while it was on a rug atop a wood floor, would you consider that abuse/cruelty?

I'm just curious. I think the person who yelled abuse at this child from a couple hundred yards away from the bottom of a hill to a house atop the hill wasn't seeing things in the proper perspective.

I think the child was probably playing nicely & not intending to hurt the animal.

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Comments (6)

User
16 years ago
Depends on the cat and the child. No way to tell without seeing it.
floralbunny
16 years ago
I used to dance with my pets when I was young all of the time.
Me and the dogs would do weel-barral races. Little kids are innocent. They don't know that dancing hurts/doesn't hurt them - kids like to dance and twirl around, they'de think the cat would like it too. They don't know what that long thing dangling from the cat's rear is.... Poor kitty, but some cats will teach kids a lesson by a hiss, slapping him/her with it's claws or biting the child.
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quirkyquercus
16 years ago
I was going to say, there's quite a bit of dancing going on here with my larger dog. He's a natural at the box step.

I think like with anything you're going to be a witness to something you have to be close enough to clearly see what is going on.
sally2_gw
16 years ago
The way you describe it, it doesn't sound like abuse at all. Besides, a cat would definately let the child know if it didn't like what he/she was doing - the cat might have actually enjoyed the attention. Children definately do need to learn there are limits to how rough they can play with a pet, such as if the child were yanking the cat by the paws rather than slowly pulling. I would definately supervise the child to make sure neither the child nor the pet (cat) gets hurt during play.

Sally
quasifish
16 years ago
I don't think that's abuse or cruelty unless the cat is somehow being restrained against it's will and/or is obviously distressed. I have 2 cats and an 18 m.o., it is very interesting to witness what the cats withstand from her and what they will not tolerate. Nobody has put a claw into her as of yet- we are waiting for that eventuality. The other day she was poking the boy cat with a pencil and he had every opportunity to leave but chose not to, he just sat there patiently seemingly uninterested in leaving her- he isn't that tolerant with me most days. I did take the pencil away to prevent him from losing an eye. They do tolerate a lot from her, but when enough is enough, you can't make them stay.
floralbunny
16 years ago
Not to mention, when the parents see the cat in pain - they'll get on to the kid. I remember when I was about 5, we had a cat, and I asked my mom why was she getting so fat. She said that she has babies in her tummy. Well, one day she catches me outside prying the cat's mouth open and looking far down her throat. Mom's like, "What on earth are you doing?" I replied, "I want to see the babies."

Abuse/cruelty?

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