Terrible animal abuse by young children.

[ChrisJB]

Having taught in primary and secondary settings I see on a regular basis children badly let down by weak parenting. It is clear, so many parents of all social standings are unable to say no to their kids and thus fail them by not providing firm boundaries and consistency.
Unfortunately teachers are now substitute parents, providing boundaries (albeit pretty lame ones as we are sadly no longer allowed to thrash the kids for their misdemeanors) and having to teach ludicrous subjects like 'Lifeskills', 'Citizenship' and P.S.H.E. These used to come under the umbrella of parenting not so long ago.
The authorities are powerless too and the little sods know it. So in summary, too many parents are not doing an adequate job. Teachers, the police etc, have no power to punish, they just temporarily contain. Thus, society suffers.

Regards, Chris

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by Gill Catton

Well I was initially taking issue with the automatic assumption that these are just evil kids and also with the assumption that a good hiding would be a cure all. - Its very easy to sit back in a healthy happy upbringing and judge those who haven't been anywhere near as lucky.

But how do you know these kids had a bad upbringing - perhaps they are simply evil - the bottom line is that we dont actually know,

and by the way I grew up with a father who's an alcoholic and until the age of 12 lived in a house with no effective drainage and a cess pool which used to overflow regularly across the drive - so while i wouldn't charecterise my upbringing as unhappy (thanks to the brilliant efforts of my much loved mummy) I'm not exactly judging these kids from the safety of the perfect nuclea family

and while this did cause me some social problems - you try bringing school freinds back to tea at house where the toilet is blocked with excrement and there are puddles of sewage in the garden - it didnt cause me to go off and beat puppies half to death with sticks either.

[Kayleigh]

I brought my son up on my own after a violent partner..
None of my kids would ever hurt any animal or person for that matter. I don't know what makes kids turn bad but they are not born that way.

Look at the two lads that beat Jamie Bulger to death..What an appalling thing to happen to a toddler..They are living free lives now while that little boy will never see the light of day..

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by Kayleigh

I brought my son up on my own after a violent partner..
None of my kids would ever hurt any animal or person for that matter. I don't know what makes kids turn bad but they are not born that way.

Look at the two lads that beat Jamie Bulger to death..What an appalling thing to happen to a toddler..They are living free lives now while that little boy will never see the light of day..

I think in some cases they are born that way, or at least with a disposition towards doing bad things - as evidenced by numerous kids who have bad experiences but dont go on to hurt or kill.

[Gill Catton]

Originally Posted by eeyore

But how do you know these kids had a bad upbringing - perhaps they are simply evil - the bottom line is that we dont actually know,

and by the way I grew up with a father who's an alcoholic and until the age of 12 lived in a house with no effective drainage and a cess pool which used to overflow regularly across the drive - so while i wouldn't charecterise my upbringing as unhappy (thanks to the brilliant efforts of my much loved mummy) I'm not exactly judging these kids from the safety of the perfect nuclea family

and while this did cause me some social problems - you try bringing school freinds back to tea at house where the toilet is blocked with excrement and there are puddles of sewage in the garden - it didnt cause me to go off and beat puppies half to death with sticks either.

There are two (or more) sides to every story and there's no harm in expressing either is there?

and I'm not sure I believe in a child that's born simply evil..... Unless you're talking about mental illness? Is that really evil?

[ChrisJB]

Whilst a lack of good honest discipline can contribute to acts of barbarism, I also think that, yes, some people are born with a genetic predisposition for cruelty.

Regards, Chris

[Jez]

Lets all hope that people will find a good site i.e this one & can educate and inspire children to learn respect and love wildlife

[Kayleigh]

Originally Posted by Jez

Lets all hope that people will find a good site i.e this one & can educate and inspire children to learn respect and love wildlife

Well said Jes..

Mabe they should stop watching violent videos and games meant for 18yrs.

[deer boy]

The trouble with this country is there are too many do gooders.If the death penalty was brought back for murderess,pedos & rapist then we would empty our prisons over night.Then we could give tougher sentences to people like these kids to make them think twice before commiting such crimes.I know not all murders ect deserve the death penalty but tougher sentences are needed to stop more kids going off the rails.
Another problem is the parents kids are having kids these days & aren't mature enough to look after them.
I'm only 22 & it seems it's only in the last 20 odd years that these sort of things have been happening.
We need to make these kids fill part of society but not let them run the country like they are.

[aestarte]

Originally Posted by hobble

I fully blame the parents, these people have children, then can't really be bothered with the actual day to day job of bringing them up, so they are left to there own devices.
I dread to think what sort of people they will grow up to be, probably the same as their parents.
So the cycle continues.

Hear hear my partner and me were talking about this just the other day parents are a childs role model especially at those ages so monkey see monkey do, hopefully they will be locked away in prison when they are older as should the parents be now.All my love Fi. X X X X

[nightshade]

Now we have "Nanny Cams" so instead of looking after your children and bringing them up "right" you can leave them with someone you do not trust and have a wonderful evening out but watching the nanny and children

[Real Wild Child]

Yes Children have no respect for any living creatures now. But also what about adults that do not have respect for living creatures as well. You know the ones I mean, the ones who tie or shove fireworks up animals.

[Gill Catton]

Originally Posted by Real Wild Child

Yes Children have no respect for any living creatures now.

That's not true at all, you can't tar all young people with the same brush can you?

[vole-woman]

It's up to all of us to try and encourage young people to get involved and respect nature. My own boys are totally into minibeasts, geology, reptiles, pond life etc, and they each have a pet that I make sure they look after responsibly.

But I also end up talking to a lot of scary hoodie-types because most nights I go watch Water Voles from a bridge next to a youth centre. I can count on the fingers of one hand the times, in two and a half years, I've had negative experiences with them, despite the fact that a lot of these kids are bigger than me and are on the rough side.

They very often come over and ask what I'm looking for, and when I tell them they usually ask about rats, and I explain the difference. They might express themselves in ripe language, but the questions are sensible ones. Because I litter-pick there regularly and visibly, I've seen on several occasions kids say to others not to chuck stuff in the brook (it happened two nights ago, actually).

So if we all make an effort to involve young people, we might make a real difference (sure I'm preaching to the converted here - apologies if I've sounded at all patronising!!!)