Well, animal-abuse is viewed by psychologists as a PRELUDE
to child-abuse so, to set your mind at rest, there are
probably not many cases like the one you cite.  (Although I
agree, only one is too many.)

From my own admittedly unscientific observations, Sherry,   I think
this is probably something like the cases where one or more child is
seemingly singled out for abuse or neglect, and other children appear
normally cared-for.  There was a well-publlicized case in NJ a couple
of years ago where a 19-year-old was discovered in an appaling state
of arrested development through sheer neglect and deprivation-- and
other kids in the house seemed pretty normally cared-for.  This is
really not the behavior or people who could be considered in any way
normal.

Within the admittedly broad spectrum of "normal" behavior, my
admittedly unscientific observation is that people who are cruel or
neglectful of animals just tend not to be nice people.  People who are
very preoccupied with animals may or may not be nice to other other
people-- but AFAIC, someone who is cruel to, or neglectful of animals
in his/her care is just a right b*stard, full stop.



Theresa
Stinky Pictures: http://community.webshots.com/album/125591586JWEFwh
My Blog: http://www.humanitas.blogspot.com

I think the clue is *dogs*. You can train a dog to *obey* you absolutely.
Dogs never talk back, never do anything "naughty", never have a tantrum,
whinge or cry through the night. Dogs won't bug you incessently to go to
McDonalds, create incredible mess inside, don't wet their bed on occasion
etc etc. You can board a dog at a kennel when you go away, and if you decide
you don't like a dog, you can give it to the RSPCA and/or have it put down
and no-one bats an eye-lid.

Kids, whilst utterly wonderful and adorable can be exceptionally
frustratiiong creatures to share your life with, and its *you* who have to
change your attitude to cope with them (much like having a cat) as you can
only "train" them so far.

A certain "baby-dog walock" over in the other groups insists on *absolute
control* over his dogs, they must obey perfectly his every whim and desire.
And the dogs will indeed do it, but kids just won't. I'm not in any way
saying or implying that "baby-dog warlock" is a child abuser, rather that,
if you took his mind set of absolute control of his dogs to the extreme, it
wouldn't be much of a jump to postulate why the dogs (who were 100%
obedient) were well kept, but the child (who couldn't be) wasn't.

I am not a psychologist.

Yowie

That's a heartbreaking situation.  I'm so glad that child was taken from
those parents.  Like you, Sherry, I can hardly understand people who will
care for their dogs, but not their children.  I think the situation Yowie
describes must be a contributing factor.  A child is far more complicated
than a dog, and you can't expect absolute obedience from them. And they can
talk, and talk back  In my experience, you can't always expect total
obedience from dogs, either. But you can give your dog commands in public
and speak to them in ways you can't speak to a child.

But sad... very, very sad. I hope that child can be helped, because he's
going to need LOTS of help.

Melissa

I can understand why this specific form of f'd-up behavior would
appall you, but I think the mistake is in trying to assign any meaning
to it at all.  A rational person might put some thought into the
relative quality of life of their pets vs. their kids.  But the people
you are describing are not rational or probably even sane, and so
maybe the assumption that they even consider the two issues to be
related is unfounded.

I'm having trouble putting my thoughts into words, but I guess what
I'm trying to say is, these people are simply mentally ill.  To them,
the comparison between dogs and child may never have come up.

I'm just so glad they found this child.

So sad!
Lots of purrs and best wishes for the child to recover in a family that
would love him,