GA - Man Swats Boy For Grabbing His Kitty

[rossva]

How do you know he set it down in front of the kid? The cat and carrier could have been in place before the kid and mother who couldn't control him came into the vet. And if the cat is distressed, you woulkdn't want to move it to a new location every time some one came into the waiting room.

I wouldn't either. Still does not excuse the cat's owner for setting the carrier down on a chair. If the cat was that distressed, why not set the carrier in a place no one had access? Or carry it?

Kids get upset. Adults can not expect children to act like adults and have adult behavior. They are curious. Don't lay something down in front of a child and expect them not to be curious. Adults have a responsibility to have appropriate behavior around children too.

I wouldn't have made the stupid mistake to set something down in front of a child that I didn't want the child to touch.[/QUOTE]

 

[Belinda]

The fact of the matter is they were both wrong. The mother should have controlled her undisciplined child and the man should not have hit the child. I, too, am sick and tired of children running wild all over the place, while their parents could care less. So many people do not bother to train their children and then turn them loose on any unsuspecting person trying to go about their business. You can't even eat in a restaurant anymore without children running wild all over the place and driving everyone nuts. It's not fair and it's not right, but he still shouldn't have touched the child. If you can't be bothered to control your child, keep them at home.

 

[Sonya610]

The man was responsible for ensuring his kitten was safe. Carriers designed for cats are so tiny a 9 yr old could carry them with ease. The man was negligent for not watching his own animal and carrying it at all times.

The man was WATCHING the pet carrier in the vet's office and ensuring his cat was not being taunted, frightened, or otherwise molested.

It is NOT the man's responsibility to scamper around the vet's waiting room dragging his sick, frightened animal with him in order to avoid malicious individuals that are trying to annoy/harrass his fragile animal.

When I go to a vet's office I fully expect both my animals and I can be there without worrying about being molested or harrassed in ANY WAY.

 

[Filly]

The fact of the matter is they were both wrong. The mother should have controlled her undisciplined child and the man should not have hit the child. I, too, am sick and tired of children running wild all over the place, while their parents could care less. So many people do not bother to train their children and then turn them loose on any unsuspecting person trying to go about their business. You can't even eat in a restaurant anymore without children running wild all over the place and driving everyone nuts. It's not fair and it's not right, but he still shouldn't have touched the child. If you can't be bothered to control your child, keep them at home.

Well said, Belinda. In fact I have friends that waitress that are in fear of burning kids while they try and serve food while little kids run rampant all over the restraunts and parents aren't paying a bit of attention.

Meanwhile for the record Rusty has wisely removed the "Spankings are for good girls too" picture from his FB. Nothing to do with this case, but just saying.

For the record we had a guy on a bus here "tell" a woman to restrain her out of control child. That got people shot. We've also had people on public transportation tell a mom not to spank her child and that got folks shot.

This just always brings me back to seeing my daughter's face looking at me while kids ran rampant ignored by parents in social settings where there were other adults sans kids. She'd look like "They're all doing it so why can't I?" Because you don't behave in such a manner and put other people out is why.

 

[nao]

Well maybe the mother should be charged with neglect. A vets waiting room is no place for a child to be having playtime.
I was a vet tech for 3yrs, fearless of animals before, now i have very healthy respect and understanding that most animals and owners are stressed while at clinics. There is usually a checkin counter and some chairs in the waiting room, no place to hide your animal away. And why should you, vets are expensive, it should be a controlled enviroment. You are expected to keep the animals away from each other or wait outside if you can't control your pet, (so no fights) Why should you expect less from a human controlling a little human.
And honestly cats are the most dangerous, they can move really fast, and they have teeth and 4 claws that can all go in different directions, very hard to physically control if they panic.Even when caged. (Ouch the memories) What if the cat or a dog had attacted the child? Who would of been at fault then?
I would be angry if a stranger laid a hand on my child, but i'd be furious if some child was harrassing my pet. The mother was the cause of the problem, the fact that she laid charges disgusts me.
Maybe a law will have to be made so small children can't enter a vet clinic, since it seems the parent is not held responsible for putting their child in a possibly dangerous situation.
I never saw a situation like that while working at the vets, parents are usually wise enough to know, their child might get bit if it goes up to an unknown animal. MOO

 

[noZme]

This sums it up for me ~ copied from gitana1's post #50,BBM :

"So, should this guy be sued? Nah, I don't think he was malicious and he probably acted on instinct. Misguided yes, but mom made huge mistakes that day too. The mother should have controlled her kid. When that didn't work she should have taken him outside. Since she didn't and a stranger lost his cool, she should have said, "I'm very sorry for my child's behavior but it is not okay to hit someone else's kid." But, since she wasn't the type to control her child to begin with, of course she is the type to sue a man her child was harassing instead of walking away. "

 

[Lovejac]

This sums it up for me ~ copied from gitana1's post #50,BBM :

"So, should this guy be sued? Nah, I don't think he was malicious and he probably acted on instinct. Misguided yes, but mom made huge mistakes that day too. The mother should have controlled her kid. When that didn't work she should have taken him outside. Since she didn't and a stranger lost his cool, she should have said, "I'm very sorry for my child's behavior but it is not okay to hit someone else's kid." But, since she wasn't the type to control her child to begin with, of course she is the type to sue a man her child was harassing instead of walking away. "

:applause: :applause:

 

[Jan]

A cat that just had surgery is in pain or sedated on pain meds and should be left alone in its carrier. If a child bothered my newly operated on cat, I would tell the child firmly to leave it alone. If the child continued, I would tell the mother to keep the child away from my cat (nicely but firmly). If the child continued to harrass the cat, I would ask the office staff to remove the offending child from the waiting room, and would also make a complaint to the vet. The last surgery my cat had cost $1,400, so I would have no tolerance for a child grabbing at the recovering cat.

 

[Melanie]

The man was WATCHING the pet carrier in the vet's office and ensuring his cat was not being taunted, frightened, or otherwise molested.

It is NOT the man's responsibility to scamper around the vet's waiting room dragging his sick, frightened animal with him in order to avoid malicious individuals that are trying to annoy/harrass his fragile animal.

When I go to a vet's office I fully expect both my animals and I can be there without worrying about being molested or harrassed in ANY WAY.

What's interesting is that when in a vet's office, we are expected to control our animals so they don't hurt any other visitors or their animals. What's so different with children? They can run lose and harass anyone they want to and it's okay? I didn't raise my child (now teen) that way, and would expect the owner of the child (LOL) to do the same as we expect of the doggies that visit.

Now don't take my comparison to a child to an animal - I'm only using it in the context of the conversation (vet's office).

Anyway, I just wish parents would control their children!

MOO

Mel

 

[Melanie]

I disagree with him being arrested. And if it were me on the jury I would vote "not guilty."

Don't tell me this is going to trial! :what:

He swatted the child on the butt. It wasn't child abuse or molestation. Sure, I wouldn't be happy if I were the mother -- but if my child came up and tried to harass someone else's fur-baby, and got a tap/swat on the butt, I'd apologize -- I wouldn't call the police.

Children learn respect by respecting others. My son will tell you that, as it's the number one rule in this house.

MOO

Mel

 

[Flutterby80]

Don't tell me this is going to trial! :what:

He swatted the child on the butt. It wasn't child abuse or molestation. Sure, I wouldn't be happy if I were the mother -- but if my child came up and tried to harass someone else's fur-baby, and got a tap/swat on the butt, I'd apologize -- I wouldn't call the police.

Children learn respect by respecting others. My son will tell you that, as it's the number one rule in this house.

MOO

Mel

I agree except I think that children learn respect by watching their parents be respectful to others. This mom clearly wasn't respecting the rights of the other people and animals in the office by letting her child harrass them. She allowed it. She condoned it by her failure to take control of the situation her child was creating. Her kid was just doing what he learned from mom.

I still don't feel the man should have touched the child, but I think calling the police is ridiculous. The child wasn't harmed. People have gone crazy. Allowing your small child to terrorize people and animals, and claiming you can't figure out how to stop him? Please. I have never laid a hand on my son, but you better believe if he was acting like this I would have taken him out of that vet's office. We would have had a stern chat outside and if that didn't have the desired effect, we would have gone home. And I have done this very thing on 2 occasions that I can think of. It would have been inconvenient for me to have to reschedule the appointment, but that's MY problem. NOT the problem of everyone else in that office.

But see, there is the root of the entire situation. It's obvious that mom was thinking about HER needs and HER convenience and not considerate of others. I see sooooo many parents who act this way. Is it a wonder their children don't give a darn about anything or anyone except themselves?

I agree with the other posters who say this parent would likely be the type to sue if her child was bitten or scratched by an animal. Her reasoning would be that the owner should have control of their animal at all times. How ironic.

 

[SwampMama]

Ya know what pizzes me off about cases like this? Ok, sure the guy shouldn't put his hands on a kid but there was NO harm done, none. No reason to turn it into a case where he was arrested.

Now we have people talking about drastic measures to make sure this doesn't happen again ( laws to deal with kids, prohibiting kids at vets waiting rooms, etc, etc).

Why can't that mom just take responsibility that she has an out of control kid? She admitted as much, saying she couldn't control him. Why does the general public have to live in fear of encountering a tiny monster and mom who doesn't show a bit of parental concern until she thinks her little darling was done wrong.

She had no problem with the kid touching and grabbing at the cat and carrier (if an adult did that it could be battery or assault, etc) but since he is a kid he is allowed to do it and then be the victim in a situation that his mother allowed to happen.

Sheesh, some people's children!!!

I love and adore kids but badly behaved ones with oblivious moms who smile and ignore their child while their child creates a path of destruction, and puts other people in the uncomfortable spot of interfering to keep that child from being hurt just really make me P.O.

 

[nao]

I was just being sarcastic about ( laws to deal with kids, prohibiting kids at vets waiting rooms, etc, etc). But sometimes it seems like we need a sign or rule for the most simple things. What happened to common sense.?
I've never seen a person come into a vet clinic and let their pet dog or cat loose, it would be mayhem.
But if there is no sign or rule, it would seems you can cause a situation, and sue, its crazy and sad. moo

 

[Karmady]

we'd all be better off if child behaving badly= swat on the behind from a handy interested adult, imo.

 

[SwampMama]

I was just being sarcastic about ( laws to deal with kids, prohibiting kids at vets waiting rooms, etc, etc). But sometimes it seems like we need a sign or rule for the most simple things. What happened to common sense.?
I've never seen a person come into a vet clinic and let their pet dog or cat loose, it would be mayhem.
But if there is no sign or rule, it would seems you can cause a situation, and sue, its crazy and sad. moo

I understood your sarcasm, so please be assured my post wasn't directed at you. My irritation is with idiots or ill behaved people in general. Meaning that 99% of people may know how to behave in a situation but 1% doesn't (or simply disregards common sense or common courtesy) and suddenly there have to be restrictions or laws put into place.

For example (and this is a huge jump and not related to this situation) but 99.99% of people know that you shouldn't bring explosives on a plane and blow them up but because of that .001% now suddenly babies are being frisked by TSA and cupcakes are suspicious forbidden items.

Irons have to have warnings that you shouldn't iron clothes while wearing them and superman costumes have warnings that the cape doesn't actually enable you to fly.

Ok, I'm kinda rambling but my point is that idiots or inconsiderate people do stuff and others have to pay the price. I taught elementary school and I had kids who were just badly behaved as a result of horrible parenting and not a medical problem.

Yet those parents want an SSI check (a crazy check) for their kids. Idiots are being rewarded for having a child and then doing a bad job of parenting. Their kids steal, lie, hurt others and break things but the parents deny it and blame everyone else but their child or themselves and will sue that their rights are being denied.

For example, I was a teacher and we had over 5 major assaults on teachers by students in less than a year. Well the administration was horrified and sent a special speaker to address the issue. We were warned severely that there was only one way to deal with the situation and we would be fired if we did not deal with a situation in the following way.

We were ordered to deal with a child who was hitting us or punching us by raising both hands in the air so that the child couldn't claim that we touched them. We were not allowed to defend ourselves or push the child off of us or restrain them from hitting us or other kids because we could be sued. We were to stand there with our hands in the air so it was clear that we were not touching the child.

Yeah, i know, i kinda wrote a long, rambling post but badly behaved people are a real pet peeve of mine.

 

[Sonya610]

Somewhat offtopic story... Years ago I used to take private dog training lessons in California with a great trainer, she was a tall sturdy yet soft spoken woman with a very alpha persona, she worked with both horses as well as dogs of all variety. Back then many folks believed in the "alpha roll" which was the harshest form of correction only used if the dog did something really serious/dangerous such as attacking another dog, the correction is psychological intimidation with no actual pain.

Well she had another private client, a woman with two obnoxious 5-6 year old boys. One day during their training visit the boys begged to hold a little white Maltese that the trainer was keeping for another client (the trainer always had her own dogs present during sessions as well as the occasional client dog, all were well behaved). The trainer allowed the boys to hold the little dog, the mother told one boy to hand the dog off to his brother and the kid didn't want to, when the mother insisted the kid got mad and THREW the little dog onto the ground (which could have broken the little dog's legs as they are quite fragile).

In a hearbeat the dog trainer grabbed the kid and alpha rolled him instantly, putting the kid on his back and then yelling "NOOOOOOO! YOU DON'T EVER DO THAT AGAIN!!! NO NO NO!" The mother just stood there with her mouth hanging open, utterly stunned, the kid naturally started crying hysterically.

I don't think the woman went back for more lessons! I thought the story was hilarious as I had met that woman and her obnoxious kids but I told the trainer she was lucky she didn't get sued. Thankfully the little maltese was not seriously hurt. Guess the kid in this story is lucky he only got a swatt on the behind, if he had messed with my old dog trainer he could have gotten alpha rolled and that memory would have lasted a lifetime!

 

[zippitydoda]

Well, I guess I could look at it this way - no one can stop people like this woman from affecting others, but we can judge them when they publically bring their nonsense to our attention. And while she has a right to file a police report and demand charges, I have a right not to like it. It seems many people don't like it either and find some fault with her parenting abilities. Who knows if she is of the mindset to understand what others think about this, but because of her reaction to this situation, its made the news and she is now seen in several different lights. Probably not what she expected and it may follow her for awhile.

In hindsight, maybe what should have happened was that society wastes more of LE's time and valuable resourses by suggesting that the man should have called 911, reported the child abuse he witnessed due to the mothers lack of concern and continuously allowing her child to be in harms way. Then he should have demanded that she be arrested and charges issued. Child services should have also gotten involved, removed the child, and then mandated parenting classes for the mother.

 

[Sonya610]

In hindsight, maybe what should have happened was that society wastes more of LE's time and valuable resourses by suggesting that the man should have called 911, reported the child abuse he witnessed

Sadly I think the man is being charged because he was NOT AGGRESSIVE ENOUGH! He chose to ask the child to stop, then gave a light swat instead of causing a scene and/or escalating the situation.

If a puppy comes up and starts mouthing my arm I am not going to call 911 and say I am being attacked by a vicious dog, I am going to grab the puppies mouth and say "NO!".

 

[Lovejac]

Somewhat offtopic story... Years ago I used to take private dog training lessons in California with a great trainer, she was a tall sturdy yet soft spoken woman with a very alpha persona, she worked with both horses as well as dogs of all variety. Back then many folks believed in the "alpha roll" which was the harshest form of correction only used if the dog did something really serious/dangerous such as attacking another dog, the correction is psychological intimidation with no actual pain.

Well she had another private client, a woman with two obnoxious 5-6 year old boys. One day during their training visit the boys begged to hold a little white Maltese that the trainer was keeping for another client (the trainer always had her own dogs present during sessions as well as the occasional client dog, all were well behaved). The trainer allowed the boys to hold the little dog, the mother told one boy to hand the dog off to his brother and the kid didn't want to, when the mother insisted the kid got mad and THREW the little dog onto the ground (which could have broken the little dog's legs as they are quite fragile).

In a hearbeat the dog trainer grabbed the kid and alpha rolled him instantly, putting the kid on his back and then yelling "NOOOOOOO! YOU DON'T EVER DO THAT AGAIN!!! NO NO NO!" The mother just stood there with her mouth hanging open, utterly stunned, the kid naturally started crying hysterically.

I don't think the woman went back for more lessons! I thought the story was hilarious as I had met that woman and her obnoxious kids but I told the trainer she was lucky she didn't get sued. Thankfully the little maltese was not seriously hurt. Guess the kid in this story is lucky he only got a swatt on the behind, if he had messed with my old dog trainer he could have gotten alpha rolled and that memory would have lasted a lifetime!

:floorlaugh: :floorlaugh: :floorlaugh: Thanks Sonya! I needed a laugh!

Hey, if it works for dogs, guess it will work on kids too!

I'm thinking about trying that on my 5 almost 6 year old twin boys. I'll let you know how it works. :biggrin:

 

[lonetraveler]

I disagree with him being arrested. And if it were me on the jury I would vote "not guilty."

Yep, that is one jury I would just love to serve on. I have seven grandchildren and have never abused any of them but they do know that if they are misbehaving, they will receive a tug on their hair. That is usually all it takes. They beg to go out to eat with me and are very well behaved, however, it wasn't always that way. For years I would not go out to eat with my daughter and her children (my grandchildren). She and my son-in-law were those parents who let their children run absolutely wild in a restaurant. I started keeping them after school for a while and the misbehaving ended right then and there. As soon as they learned that misbehavior would not be tolerated, they sat in their seats and I, along with everyone else enjoyed their meal. The child will do whatever he or she thinks they can get by with. The mother in this case should be charged with negligence.