*5 Tips to Reduce Safety Incidents With Pets*

Do you love pets? Are you making plans to buy a pet? Are your kids requesting for one? Then this is for you. Last year, during my physical training with members of a landlord association, the issue of pets came up.

Caring for pets can provide mental and physical health benefits, boosts a child’s confidence and can help to teach children to be responsible and caring. However, there are safety and health risks posed by pets such as bites, scratches, infections etc.

Here are tips to reduce risk of incidents:
1) Get your pet from a reputable source. It gives you peace of mind as you are aware of any background issues

2) Teach and carefully supervise  children around pets most especially during play. Teach them not to pull the tail as it makes some  animals angry. Teach them to leave the pet if it demonstrates an angry behaviour. For instance, if a cat hisses, yowls, arches his back, bares his teeth or flattens back his ears.

3) Recognise when the pet is sick and get professional help. The earlier you get advice and treatment, the less chance there is of the illness passing on to you or your child if it is transferrable. Keep sick pets away from children.

4) Encourage good hand hygiene. Teach your child at all times to wash their hands after touching the pet. Make them understand the danger of touching the pet’s droppings or something contaminated/infected with droppings and then touching their own mouths or food before hands are washed.

5) Always model safe behaviour around pets. Children copy what they see parents and adults doing.

Owning a pet is okay but ensure you have the space, time and money to care for it properly.