The head buzzes with incidents involving animals in the care facility.
There were rabbits, chickens, geese, and bantams. Hens... free range and a dog. I had my own cocker- spaniel.
Sometimes, the children and young person's rage, anger, and revenge behaviours were posted to the wrong address. Misdirected hostility. The animals bore the brunt of these occasional outbursts.
At my first appointment....here are some examples.
My cat was pelted with stones to chase it away. - it would have stalked and killed the fowls. We interrupted a very young girl drowning hens in the toilet one by one. Same girl would lure the rabbits to the rabbit-run fence with a carrot, then, through the wires, kick them. Unliked, unwanted food from the table was secretly dropped for my dog. Spaniels being the dustbins they are, gained excessive weight. The young people had clean plates. If you couldn't kick me, you could kick my dog. She had a thickening growth on one side.
For some reason, the 8 geese didn't like me or my own two children. We were attacked as we walked through the grounds to the main building. One night they got mysteriously locked in the hall. Next morning it was, what I called a skating rink of slippery, shiny, slimy goose poop. The children had to clean it out.
Then came my first and most disconcerting incident. Bestiality with the facility's dog ...girl and dog!!. In residential facilities, I only ever experienced this twice....second time boy and dog. On both occasions it was trigger for me but put into perspective by the psychiatrist whose first question was "How is the animal's behaviour since this happened?"
ASIDE, ...The two incidents in 15 years of practice in residential work was preparation for the more frequent incidents when working in rural community- based settings. The need for the medical model, psychiatric/psychological intervention fell away. It there became another developmental child and youth care learning intervention in alternative more appropriate behaviours.
Then a resident staff member wrung the necks of all the bantams. They kept him awake, he said. The children and young people were outraged......and rightly so. They demanded that he be fired - which eventually did happen.
Animal adventures. It all sounds quite negative. It's really not at all that negative. These occasional incidents over years have been condensed into four paragraphs.
Now for the positives. Despite these memories ..I can list a litany of positives.
When the animals were in any way victimised by whoever, there was a peer reaction which was used to positive effect. When the whole house tells you in no uncertain terms, as a young person, and in a language that you can understand, that THIS IS NOT OK, ....this is positive peer pressure. Most effective.
The animals were, essentially, can I say.....loved. ( and that includes my dog). The care of them was the children's responsibility. The animals had an overall positive therapeutic effect. Especially in my next appointment where there were stables and horses. For some reason I cannot explain, horses, horse care, and horse riding have a remarkable therapeutic effect.
The question then is.....what makes for good policy and practice in a residential facility around animals and especially pets in care?
By pets is meant, personal pets belonging to the children and young people themselves.
The idea of transitional objects...(.something(s) to which the child or young person has attachment brought into the new environment when otherwise separated) It can be soft toy, blanket, item of clothing, pics, posters, ....sometimes just a well loved cap. Question then is, what about a pet, and animal??
On one hand a pet is an ideal transitional object. On the other hand, Imagine, 12 children, 12 dogs 3 cats, and a rabbit!.....Can't cope!! I'm a child and youth care worker, not an animal carer.! The comes all those otherwise unbudgeted items....feeding, vet's fees, and so on and so on. Really, reality must prevail.
I think there is a positive middle path. It worked for me.
First the dog story. A facility house pet dog worked well. Like horses, there is convincing evidence of the therapeutic contribution a dog can make in the life of a child. Chores around the house pet were allocated...and worked. Frequently, though one or two children just voluntarily took over the task of dog care from the others as they had developed an attachment. THEN, occasionally, a small manageable animal seemed useful if it came with the young person. In the silk worm season there was considerable interest in having a shoebox full., an occasional white mouse ( or two), hamsters,canary, and we did have a rabbit. This was not only manageable but served useful child and youth care purpose.
How? In child and youth care work we use the transfer of learning as a tool. Pet love and attachment has parallels. "What exactly do you do to attach and relate to an animal,...Can you build on what you know about yourself in animal care and use it to help build and maintain other relationships... let's try. We build on strengths.
It must now be obvious that animals, pets when in care with children and young people have practical ups and downs. In applying the child and youth care principle of "normality", it somehow does not seem normal to separate children from animal connections when in care. There is considerable room for talk....even debate on matters of policy. Children and animals when in care. Experience says, despite any downsides, children and animals somehow belong together, that there are immediate and life-long learning positives.
All beings have to learn to live in global harmony.
Think globally. Act locally.
IMAGINE
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