Children and animal safety.

Many children love animals and enjoy having their own pets. Kids and pets go together like strawberries and cream. Parents sometimes ask or maybe wonder if they should get their child a small pocket pet. What are pocket pets ? Small pocket pets are small animals, often rodents that can fit into the pocket such as a hamster, mouse, rat or gerbil.
However, there are some elements of health risks involved when children and animals are together. Here are some safety issues to consider before introducing any animal to a young child. Most importantly for the safety of your child and also for the animals safety and well being. The Syrian hamster makes an ideal first introductory pet for young children. Small pocket pets such as a hamster are usually one of the first small pets to be considered. They are ideal as they take less time and effort than a dog or a cat, being less expensive to keep than the larger animals.

A small pet also helps in educating children into responsible pet care and ownership in readiness for caring for much larger pets in the future. Caring for a pet can teach children to learn important lessons about the responsibility of caring for animals. Therefore children need to be taught how to be kind to animals, and it is important that children need to know how to play safely with animals. Children and animals can have a magical combination, but also a dangerous one. Here are some simple pointers to make sure your child’s relationship with their new pet is always a safe one, a happy one, and one that stays that way.

It is not recommended that children under 6 to 7 years old should be given any animal as a pet. Small children under 6 years old are more likely than most to pick up germs, bacteria, and disease from animals. Young children often have a bad habit of putting their hands in their mouths after stroking or handling an animal, also touching the surfaces and equipment of animals such as cages, food bowls and bedding that animal’s use. The animals coats may be contaminated with bacteria from feces and urine. Even the cleanest of animals carry bacteria on their coats. Children under this age pick up diseases more easily than older children or adults.

Young children above this age should not have unsupervised access to animals and should always be supervised by an adult.
Young children are less likely than adults to wash their hands well. It is very important to teach children to wash hands thoroughly with soap and water after any contact with animals or their bedding and equipment. Don’t let children kiss pets or to put their hands into their own mouths after touching animals.

Noisy children can be irritants even to the calmest of pets. Sudden and excessive noise may cause an animal to bite. For this reason never leave small children alone with an animal and explain to your child that high pitched screams or sudden loud noises can easily startle an animal. Explain that animals have feelings and personalities just like people do. Some animals are naturally friendly and calm but can become nervous, skittish, and over excited in an excessively noisy environment.

Teach children never to interrupt an animal when it’s sleeping or eating.
- Never pull tails, ears, or play rough.
- Never to restrain or trap an animal or try to keep it from escaping.
- Never make loud noises around a pet, loud or sudden noise can startle pets and they may un-intentionally bite.

Discourage children from putting their hands into their own mouths or near their eyes when handling or playing with animals.
Children with pet allergies, or with low immunity should refrain from handling or being in close proximity of animals.
Pet allergies adults and children
Wash hands both before and after handling so they do not smell of food to an animal.
Animals may bite if given the opportunity or if provoked.

All animals and people carry a variety of micro organisms on their body and in their intestinal tract. Some of these organisms can be transferred between people and animals Zoonoses On most occasions humans acquire infections by transferring micro organisms from their hands to their mouths.

Hand to mouth transfer is the method by which organisms such as Escherichia coli and Salmonella cause infection in people. This and a few related strains of E coli can produce powerful toxins that can potentially cause severe disease. A very small number of these particular bacteria can infect people, especially children and the elderly. E coli, campylobacter and salmonella can be found in a variety of animal species, particularly birds, reptiles and rodents.
Almost every type of animal has a list of diseases that it carries that may infect humans. Symptoms of a salmonella or campylobacter infection are very similar both may include diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps 12 to 72 hours after exposure, in severe cases the infected individual may be hospitalized for dehydration. Furthermore, if the infection spreads from the intestines into the blood stream and is not treated properly salmonella can cause death.
In addition to lacking the proper hygiene practices of adults kids are also more likely to get scratched or bitten by exotic pets through improper handling.
This is primarily due to the fact that children often do not know how to properly handle exotic pets. Not using the proper handling techniques for these animals can cause them stress making them more likely to bite or scratch. These wounds create a point of entry for bacteria and diseases that are transferable between humans and animals, known as zoonoses. The types that can be picked up easily by contact with affected animals are Salmonella, Rabies, Campylobacter, E.coli, Ringworm, and many more. Infections can be by direct contact or from a bite, scratch or by ingestion from bacteria from hand to mouth by an infected animal, or even touching an animal infected with ringworm. It can also be indirect where the person contacts infected body fluids such as urine or saliva, or inhales infectious organisms. All children handling pets should be under constant adult supervision.

Some other points to consider

Children should not be allowed to handle stressed or sick animals.
Animals should not be allowed around or near infants and toddlers.
Animals should not be accessible to children with pet allergies.
Adults should immediately stop any interaction by children with animals showing stress or harmful behavior.
Animals with a history of biting or other aggressive behavior must not be allowed to be handled by children.
Everyone, including adults must wash their hands immediately after handling animals

Whenever an animal is being handled try to cause as little fear or distress as possible. A frightened distressed animal may try to escape and could injure itself or your child.
Remember that even small animals bite and scratch and may well do so if they are not handled carefully or correctly.
If young children will be handling the animals take extra care choosing the type or breed.
Always teach proper handling techniques to children.

Zoonoses

Some people think that getting a pocket pet, reptile, or another exotic animal might seem like the right choice. Unfortunately if you have small children exotic pets such as reptiles or birds can be a danger to your family’s health if hygiene precautions are not observed.
What is Zoonosis / Zoonoses, it is any infectious disease that is able to be transmitted from animals, both wild and domesticated, from animals to humans or from humans to animals. The latter is called reverse Zoonosis. The word is derived from the Greek words zòon (animal) and nosos (ill). Some of these diseases can be extremely serious and may be potentially life-threatening, others may cause only transient mild disease. Whilst reported instances of transmission of disease between domesticated animals and humans are thankfully not frequent. But they nevertheless represent significant disease prevalence.

Children and people with poor immune systems are more susceptible to develop serious infections when they come into contact with zoonoses. Sarcoptes scabiei mange mite is a parasitic disease and is transmissible to humans. The term refers to a mite infestation by either sarcoptes scabiei or other mite species closely related to sarcoptes scabiei. Campylobacter and salmonella are bacterial diseases that can be transmitted to humans. Ring worm is a highly infectious fungal disease. At a time when an animal appears to be ill there is no sure way of knowing whether or not it has a Zoonosis. Some animals can carry bacteria like campylobacter (particularly birds) and salmonella (reptiles) and do not show any outward signs of illness. Proper hygienic precautions should be taken after contact with any animal that could be carrying disease, particularly with children. Humans known to have a poor immune function or people being treated with immune suppressants as well as young children should not be exposed to any suspected sick or infected animal. Basic hygiene precautions should always be observed the washing hands after holding or stroking pets, cleaning out their bedding or handling food and water bowls and other utensils.

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