Death Scare - Birds not for children?

[miracleleo]

My sister-in-law told us that a 3-year-old boy of her guest almost killed her canary yesterday. The boy approached the canary's cage and somehow grabbed him. Apparently he pulled the canary's tale feather since it's all missing and was on the floor. When my sister-in-law went to check on the boy, he was drowning the canary by keeping his head in a water container. She quickly pulled the canary out of water to try to save his life. He managed to survive. When I heard about it, I was so upset and shocked, but at the same time it just made me so angry.

[Janie]

I don't think any pet should be left (even for a second) unsupervised with a three year old. I wouldn't leave my dog or bird alone with a child under 10 and even then only "some" children.

I am so glad that the canary managed to survive.

[linda040899]

Birds and children are not a good combination, especially unsupervised! Should this child come to your sister-in-law's home again, she should put the canary in another room and close the door.....out of sight, out of mind.

Whenever guests with small children come here, I lock up all birds and explain to the child that they bite! Therefore no fingers between cage bars. I even go so far as to put locks on the doors so that the doors cannot be opened. This tends to save friendships and avoid lawsuits!

[NickyBeth]

I don't mean to be harsh -- but did anyone stop to think for a second that MAYBE the 3 year old has some issues? It wouldn't surprise me if this kid was a "puppy kicker/ear puller", as I used to babysit kids like that.

What 3 year old would reach through the bars and pull on the feathers of a bird, and then go so far as to dunk the poor canary in it's own water dish?

I have a 3.5 year old and a 1.5 year old. When Cherry is out, I can trust my children to leave Chers at peace and to not torment her. They watch her every move and even let me know when something is not right about 'Cherry'.....i.e. meaning she needs more water, or her toy fell down or whatnot.

Where was the child's mother? Where was the bird owner? Those are also two other questions I'd like to see the answer to.

While I am all glad that the 'keet is safe, it is the duty of also the pet owner to protect their pet from harm's way.

[miracleleo]

My husband spoke with his sister again. She told that the kid was even trying to attack her family's rabbit and yellow-naped-amazon by putting his finger into their eyes, so they warned him not to do it again. But then the next morning he sneaked into the living room and attacked the canary when nobody was up. By the way the boy was 5 years old, not 3 years old. I want to clarify again the boy is not my sister-in-law's child. He is her child's friend. It sounds like he need serious help!

The canary did not only lose his tail feather but also chest feather. The skin is so red and irritated. And the very sad thing is that he can no longer fly and he is having hard time to even hop from perch to perch.

[miracleleo]

The 5-year-old boy was sleeping over at my sister-in-law's home since her kid insisted that he wanted the boy to stay with him. The boy's mother was at her own home. My sister-in-law was at her own house with her family upstairs sleeping as it was still early in the morning. Luckily my sister-in-law woke up and came downstairs so she was able to save the canary.

I agree. It was also my sister-in-law's responsibility to protect all her family animals. Also she is responsible to make sure her animals are not hurting her guests and kids. I hope she and her family learned a lesson and they will make sure it won't happen again.

[Gill]

That is so sad, i would hope that if i ever have kids they would know at the age of 5 that hurting animals is very very wrong. Poor little bird, im so glad it was spotted in time and is still alive.

[SammySamantha]

As a pet owner, it is my responsibility to keep my animals and my vistors safe and comfortable. The people who come to my home know what to expect, and depending on the visitor I know how much to shield my pets. It is my job to constantly evaluate the situation.

But, crud! There is only so much protection you can do. This child sounds disturbed. At 3, causing intentional pain and drowning is cause for concern. At 5 it is very alarming. I am a nanny and love children, but I don't think I would allow this child back into my house. Hopefully his parents will get the message and get him some help.

Animal torture, prolonged bed wetting, arson - 3 hallmarks of serial killer.

Hope the canary recovers from this ordeal.

[chromasnake]

Wow...I'm glad the poor little bird is alive, and the other bird/pets/humans are OK, and I hope this child and his parents get some serious help.

[bbslovie]

That poor bird! Since past behavior is a good indicator on future behavior I can only imagine how he has treated his own pets, family/siblings or other friends. :(

[linda040899]

If this is the behavior displayed at age 5, it sounds like some serious help is needed and PDQ! Mistreatment of animals can easily escalate to mistreating/injuring/killing humans. Don't think I would allow this child back in my home before help is sought! Hopefully, that will happen very soon.

[Eliza]

A 5 year old??? Goodness: a 5 year old is certainly old enough to mind his manners and respect animals. If he's sneaking about to willfully taunt and hurt animals, he clearly has some issues.

I'm sorry that this happened and I hope that your SIL is able to keep her pets out of harm's way during the duration of this child's visit.

[miracleleo]

The canary seems to be okay now. My SIL said that he was soaking wet and his legs were twitching when she took him out of the water container and she needed to wrap him with a towel to warm up since he could not stand up for a few hours. He was breathing very heavily for a day and now he is doing better. It is a miracle he survived.
The boy's mother is in denial and it seems she has not realized how serious the problem is.
My SIL's youngest child (5 year old) wanted the boy to leave immediately when that happened and he never ever wants the boy to come visit his house any more.

[spiritwolf46]

WOW! Was JUST reading this thread and was horrified by this child's behavior! I could not agree more than what the rest of the poster's here were saying about this child needing help immediately! I have a 4 year old granddaughter and she is supervised around all of my animals and has never shown anything but interest in them. I allow her to "help" in feeding the birds by carrying the seed cups and so on and try to teach her all about them, but never has she tried to harm any animal that I have.

I feel so bad for the bird that got hurt and I feel so bad for the child that seems to have so many issues as well. I hope that the parents get off their duff's and get this child some help. I hope that they do not deny this child for truly, this child WILL become a cell mate someday.

What a shame all the way around. :(

[tokameaki]

I just think its not right when people buy pets for their very young children and lets the children play with their new pet and the mother and father aren't paying attention to their children when something bad happends they blame the pet....if the pet dies oh its a joke...when I'll have my kids they will grow up respecting animals...and I won't let them play with any animal without me being there watching....I just think its stupid my aunt said the other day I would love to buy a parrot for my doughter....her daoughter is not even 2 yet...I was so mad at her....pets aren't object....they are living beings that deserve time, responsability and respect from their onwers...poor betta fish parents buy for their kids without having any idea how to take care of them....anyways...

[onionhead]

That is so terrible!
I have a three year old and three birds. I know how hard it can be to supervise her at all times. She would NEVER purposely harm the birds but with three year olds you just never know what could happen. My daughter does her fair share of tormenting them, which consists of showing them her toys, singing loudly to them, doing dances for them, and trying to share her food with them. Now to her this seems like something the birds should enjoy, no matter how many times I tell her it is not.
Sooo, I made up a game called "the timer game". I set the kitchen timer for different times, 8 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, etc. , and when the timer goes off she must be leaving the birds alone. If she is leaving them alone she gets a mini marshmallow. She will do anything for mini marshmallows, LOL.
It works great and gives me time to get things done around the house while the birds are caged.