Who needs therapy more...the cat or the owner?

Fuck people who kick animals.

The owner. That cat did what it should have done.

The owner, of course. No question about it. And any animal owner that allows their cat to reach 22 lbs shouldn’t have a cat.

Hahaha, I like that they show a “file photo of a cat” just in case readers are in any doubt as to what a cat is, great journalism guys.
Anyway, the owners are the only ones behaving like pussies here, sort yourselves out.

Lol I’m just picturing a cat laying on a therapist couch. Thanks for that.

well and this

@uberbatman Just for you

hmm cats

The owner should be charged with cruelty to animals.

I don’t care how large the cat is; just look at the size discrepancy between human and cat. A kick from a person has the potential of inflicting serious injury.

The cat was just just defending itself.

The ASPCA should take the cat and adopt it out to a loving home. This guy should get what he deserves for kicking a small animal like that. He doesn’t deserve to have a cat

@Buttonstc I think you are right about the discrepancy and potential of injury as in the article they say they…“are getting it medical attention”. I can only imagine the flood of attention from sympathetic animal lovers this story is getting and hate mail Lee Palmer is going to get.

The owners are clearly at fault. The cat should go to a PETA shelter.

I think there’s more than meets the eye here.

But that said, if an animal attacked my child, I sure wouldn’t be gentle with that animal! In fact, I can’t predict exactly what I’d do, but I sure wouldn’t say “Here, kitty, kitty!”

And if a cat- or any animal was that unpredictable around infants, that cat would not be living with me for long. Or I’d kennel it until I could find it another home. Either way, this is not the time to start trying to socialize a vicious animal to become a safe companion in a home with an infant!

Based on the story as it is told right now, it seems to me that there are at least 2 idiots here: the parents, and possibly the “cat psychologist”!

“Palmer says the animal attacked his 7-month-old child after the baby pulled its tail. The child suffered a few scratches on the forehead.”
I want to know what else the baby might have done to the cat. Shame on the parents for letting their infant near the cat. With that and kicking the cat, it doesn’t seem like they’re doing the best job of caring for either beings.

@livelaughlove21 – 22 lbs. can be a normal weight for some breeds of cats. Both my rescued domestic shorthair cats weigh about 13lbs. – one is a butterball and the other is long and lean. Like humans, their skeletal frames and body mass vary pretty widely.

I haven’t followed the story closely, but it does seem like the people should not have pets and therefore, probably shouldn’t have children. Animals, need to be respected as such- that will react instinctively and defend themselves if they feel threatened. I’ve had a few mean cats in my lifetime, and will admit that when we were kids, we weren’t taught to respect them, and they would let us know if we’d crossed the line.

@hearkat This cat is nearly 10 lbs bigger than yours. That’s a hell of a big difference for cats. If the cat was lean, I doubt its weight would’ve made the news.

I think it’s weight made the news because the baby might not weigh much more than the cat, @livelaughlove21. It is large for a cat, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the cat is over fed – which was what you suggested in your original comment. Maine Coon cats and Bengal cats are two larger breeds, and when they mix with other breeds, the offspring can still be quite large and powerful.

@hearkat This cat was a Himalayan. A large breed, sure, but typically between 8 and 14 lbs. Not 22.

This was a fat cat. Plain and simple.

The owner’s a moron that shouldn’t have animals or children. A seven month old doesn’t know how to interact with animals, and letting them do so is just asking for trouble. A kick to an animal is stupid and totally ridiculous. We once turned down a loan request in part because the guy tried to kick the family dog because he was in the way. Iif he’s going to treat the family pet like that how is he going to treat farm animals?

Ignorant fucks! You don’t show aggression towards ANY animal and expect them to respond like a human. They need to have the guy from ” My cat from hell” out to educate them in what the poor cats behaviorial clues mean.
They need to learn how to speak cat, the cat doesn’t need to learn how to speak human. Pffft!

I had a Himmy for years, they are usually extremely placid and easy going cats.

@Coloma TRUTH. I’m often very baffled on how some people seem to expect animals, or even small children, to understand things the way human adults do.

@Coloma That is until they are drop kicked across the room. I give props to the cat and hope the cat can find closure with the help of this therapist! I suspect we have not heard the last of Mr. Lee Palmer and this cat.

@Symbeline I can only imagine what message this poor child got from this experience. From here on out it very well could be ”BAD kitty” to this cat or any cat this child interacts with. And God forbid this child has a cat in later years and how they respond to it’s bad behavior.

This sort of thing is one of my biggest “pet” peeves.
If you are going to own an animal, ANY animal you have an obligation to educate and learn as much as you can about the particular species behaviors, needs, “communication” cues.
I don’t care if it is a Hermit Crab or a goose or an Elephant.

Veterinary science 101 ” KNOW your animal.”
Know it’s species typical behaviors, know it’s particular habits, routines, eating, resting habits.
If something is off….it means trouble!

@Coloma You and I understand animals. A moron that lets his seven month old play with a cat is so stupid he needs something.

@Adirondackwannabe

Yes, he needs to be eliminated. lol
Easier to cull the dumb fucks than educate them. Wow..,,I’m in fine form tonight aren’t I? lol

@Coloma Knowing first hand how much it hurts when goose bites you I think you are hard core for having a goose as a pet and inside your house no less. You obviously knew what you were doing. I will never forget that image of a goose wearing Depends out of my head! ;)

This guy is similar to the parents of infants who are eaten by the family dog. Yes, unfortunately it has happened when they both were left unsupervised.

A 7 month old child doesn’t know not to pull a cat’s tail. Of course the cat will scratch if the tail pulling continues.

Young pre-verbal children and pets of any sort should NEVER be left together unsupervised. Anyone with an ounce of brain knows this.

This guy doesn’t deserve to have children or animals. He’s an idiot and a domineering thug.

@Cruiser Haha….he’s really a ham, never fear.

I see it as a parent simply reacting to an attack on his child. Should they have kept the child away from the cat? Yes, but cats will go wherever they want and can be quick. What concerns me more is that they say the cat has been violent in the past. If that is the case, then they should get rid of the cat. I had a work mate who had a crazy violent cat and every once in a while she would look like she went in some battle zone. She said the cat would just go crazy once in a while out of the blue. One time the cat pounced on her while she was sleeping. Her cat was a rescue cat and she couldn’t see sending it back to the pound. She loved her cats and would never hurt a single animal. Some animals just can’t be fixed.

When I was a teen, I also had twin friends who had two tom cats that they raised since kittens. They got home from school one day and both of them pounced at them biting and scratching them, and then jetted out the door. The never understood what happened. The cats never came back either. They left some really deep scars on their arms and face. Both girls wanted their cats to come home. They figured they must’ve gotten in heat and fought each other and just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I have a confession to make. I didn’t actually read the article in its entirety until now. I still think it’s the owner’s fault that the cat freaked out, and I have some other thoughts as well.

Okay, the 7-month-old baby pulls on the cat’s tail, and kitty doesn’t like that and “attacks” the baby. I’m not sure how “a few scratches” on the baby’s forehead constitutes an “attack.” A cat can seriously mess someone up, especially a small child. It could’ve done a lot of damage and it didn’t. However, that’s not the owner’s fault – the baby doesn’t know any better and the cat was simply reacting to the pain of having its tail pulled.

The owners made their mistake when they decided to stop this “attack” by kicking the cat in the butt. That’s not how you stop a cat from doing something you don’t want it to do. If you ask me, that’s just endangering the baby even more. What could they have done instead? Snatch the kid out of the cat’s way, for one. Next, grab the cat by the scruff of the neck and put it in the crate or another room to chill out. This keeps the baby and the cat safe, doesn’t unnecessarily hurt either of them, and doesn’t escalate the situation. If they’d done that instead of abusing the animal, it probably wouldn’t have gotten so pissed off.

I just can’t get over the image of these people, their baby, and their dog barricaded in a room, terrified of a kitty cat that was “charging” them. Yes, this is a big cat. However, the owner has got to be five times the size of this animal. It makes me giggle to think of my husband and I locking ourselves in a room because our cat is going “crazy.” Our cat is a whopping 7 lbs, so it’s quite a funny thought.

I do, however, agree with @Pandora that, if this cat has a history of behaving aggressively, they could’ve prevented this entire thing by not allowing the cat and child to interact. They could’ve given the cat to a family member or rehomed it some other way. If my cat ever hurt someone without being provoked, I wouldn’t have that cat once a baby entered the picture. I love my kitty to death, but keeping your child safe is the priority. Give the cat to a loving home with no children and move on. If the cat’s behavior simply cannot be fixed, then unfortunately other measures would be taken.

Do the owners need counseling? Nah. But they shouldn’t have animals either, if you ask me. I wonder what goes on in a cat therapy session. It just sounds so ridiculous.

@livelaughlove21

Well…what goes on in a cat therapy session is an animal behaviorist tries to educate the human animals as to what the various behaviorial issues imply when the animal is acting out.
Are they fear based reactions, stress based reactions, boredom induced behaviors, territorial induced, anxiety related etc. Just like people animals are emotional creatures and subject to emotional traumas, anxiety, depression and other behaviors that indicate something needs to be fixed in their environment to enhance their sense of well being, safety, stimulation needs, etc.

@Coloma That sounds like counseling for the people, which is not ridiculous when people are clueless about their animals. When the article says they’re seeking counseling for the pet, it sounds like the pet will be the one being counseled, not the people.

@livelaughlove21 Well yes, kinda.
The behaviorist will interpret the animals, obviously, non-verbal behaviors and then attempt to explain the dynamic to the humans.

The cat whisperer.

Here’s what Jackson Galaxy, a cat behaviorist with a known track record of success has to say about all of this.
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http://www.oregonlive.com/pets/index.ssf/2014/03/animal_planets_jackson_galaxy_1.html
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I’ll just highlight one significant part here:
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“Galaxy pointed out that children age 6 or younger should NEVER BE LEFT UNSUPERVISED with an animal. Cats are prey animals that defend their territory when threatened and may feel the need to put their claws out when provoked. ”

That would be NEVER EVER !!

@Buttonstc But was the cat left unsupervised with the baby in this case? The kid didn’t have to be unsupervised to be on the receiving end of kitty claws. They’re called “cat-like reflexes” for a reason.

The baby probably deserved it.
Like this one

I don’t know about you, but if I’m supervising any interactions between a baby and a cat, the second he reaches for that cat’s tail, he is promptly picked up and distracted with anything else he can grab. Kids that age simply don’t know enough about how the world works to know not to yank on a cats tail.

It’s a natural temptation for them because its long and looks like a toy. It’s as natural for a toddler to reach for it as it is for them to pull on anything else because they’re constantly exploring their world.

You really can’t take your eyes off kids that age for more than two seconds. It could have just as easily been a lamp cord and the resultant bop on the head when it falls.

To me supervise means exactly that. Supervising a child that age can be exhausting. But you do it because you don’t want a dead or injured child.

Somebody was not supervising the situation ADEQUATELY.

Its not as if this interaction is so out of the blue as to be nigh impossible, for crying out loud. It can be anticipated. And intelligent parents snatch their kids out of harms way countless times.

It’s not the cat’s fault. The responsibility is on the parents. If they were, in fact, supervising this, they were doing a piss poor job of it.

And kicking the cat for it is just like pouring gasoline on a fire. These people don’t deserve to have pets. They are idiots.