Omega-3 Improves Your Pet Health

My husband and I were wondering, in your opinion
what are the pros and cons of having pets in a house with small children?
pets such as hamsters, dogs, cats, ect…
Our opinions differ slightly:
Being raised on a rescue farm, my father had me around all sorts of farm animals from a very young age, even as a toddler
As soon as I could walk, I was following my father around the barn watching him and helping with what I was able to help with…whether that was fetching water or holding a can of feed while he checked the hen’s nests for eggs…
Of course I was supervised with the chickens and the dogs and other all other animals until I was old enough to understand that I needed to wash my hands after touching them; I also was supervised in handling of the animals and only allowed to handle them in an age appropriate manner
And as a result I’d like to think that I grew up more responsible, more compassionate as a result
My husband on the other hand had a very limited number of pets growing up, most of which were not in his care even when he grew older
However, as married adults, we share and love our fur-babies; we have 4 hamsters and one cat, all of which he plays with and cares for just as much as I do. I often catch him sitting in the play-pen with one fur-ball or another when I wake up in the middle of the night.
Man, he loves those little fluffies!
But at the same time he worries that having pets around small children might be a problem. He worries that having furry pets, like a dog or a cat might make our child more prone to asthma. Or that a pet like a hamster might carry some disease and transfer it to our child…
Now, I feel that if properly monitored that keeping pets would be beneficial to a child. The extra dirt around might even help boost their immune system (you don’t expose them to things like germs when they are young, they are more likely to have a poor immune system as they grow older).
He worries that having pets around will make them ill.
We do however agree that pets would be an excellent way of teaching responsiblity and compassion…
We also feel that having pets is a good way of teaching about death, (its how my dad did it).
so whats your opinion?
what are the pros and cons of pet ownership for parents of small children?
including health risks/benefits and emotional risks/benefits?
(just to clarify, we’re not fighting, just trying to find a comprimise and curious as to what other parents opinions might be)

I have 3 cats who are 9, 10, and 12 years old. They’ve been outdoor cats their whole lives and we’ve never had any problems… they’ve never gotten lost, we’ve never had complaints from neighbors about them urinating on their property, killing birds, etc. Anyways, there’s a new city bylaw stating that cats can’t roam outside your property. Since my cats have no concept of property boundaries, this means we’re going to have to keep them inside at all times, unless they’re on a leash.
Is this going to have any major affects on their mental health and their behavior? Is there anything I can do to make the transition easier for them? Thank you!

The person said he was trying to develop a way to get rid of stray cats in his neighborhood and asked about different methods he had come up with.
All I did was agree with some of them and said that if his plan succeeded, he would be very wealthy if he could implement a plan for my neighborhood here in the Philippines as well.
We have a real stray problem here in Cebu and don’t have any way of getting rid of them.
Our health department and animal control people say they have no time to deal with them and tell us to poison or shoot them.
It is only a fact and not a choice I made.

I received this cat’s mother over a year ago. A week after her birth she developed an upper respiratory infection and she almost died. Working with the vet, bottle feeding her, and supplementing her diet, I managed to bring her back to health. Everything was fine at first. She used the litter box with her litter mates. She ate, she thrived. The other two went off to the SPCA and were quickly adopted, but I kept her with me because she still had upper respiratory problems and I didn’t want them to put her down…which I think they would have done. She was still a kitten and I could not bear it. I don’t know what my plan was then, but not long after this she started to pee in inappropriate places. She ended up destroying 2 leather coaches and a chair. The furniture is gone and now she lives in a crate. I originally purchased the crate with the intent of “retraining” her. After 4 months I released her for a trial period. The 1st week was fine, but then she peed again on another chair…

I have two cats, stella a 6 yr old female and william a 4 yr old male. Stella is overweight and william is slightly underweight! The problem i have is stella is a greedy monster who eats quickly whilst william like to nibble. I feed them at the same time and leave the food until it is gone. This way they both come home at night, i have tried to feed william separately but this is difficult due to his nibbling, and the fact that stella never leaves the house, she is lazy, if i put her outside she sits on the shed roof making loud miaows till granted access to the house! Any idea how to encourage stella to do more and get william to eat quicker? Stella eats his remaining food he doesn’t seem to mind, but if i take the food away i worry he wont have enough. i have checked with the vets regards to food amounts and any health issues.