pet policy

[Blackhorse]

Hi,

I have 2 cats and a fishtank in the house and I have done a risk assessment for them, which my CCO was happy with.
Now I am about to write a pet policy, but I am not sure what to actually put in it apart from the fact that cat food, toilet etc will be in an area of the house where the children don't have access and pet food will be stored in a locked cupboard in the kitchen.

now my problem is that in the Introduction course I asked whether I should do a permission form so that children could pet the cats etc. but I was adviced not to let the children have any contact at all with the animals..

I thought that that was a bit weird. I was told that I could have a complaint against myself if a child got scratched even if parents have signed a permissoin form and that it would probably be a successfull complaint iyswim.

So I was just wondering how other CMs with pets handle this.

Any advice would be much appreciated

Thanks
Nicole

[amirose]

Its going to be pretty impossible to keep cats separate from the children - they are not like dogs which can be contained by a gate.

I don't have a permission form, i just tell parents the dogs are separated from the play area once indoors by a baby gate and that the kids can pet them with permission (from me!). I also tell parents that we go for a dog walk once a day and that the dogs are regularly vaccinated wormed and flead.

[nannymcflea]

Mine says something like;
I have 2 dogs,6 zebra finch and a hamster.The dogs are regulary vaccinated and wormed. The children will not be allowed to have access to the pets unsupervised.After touching or handling any animals the children will be asked or supervised to wash their hands.The dogs have their own enclosed area in the garden and are not allowed to foul the play area.

[helenlc]

Try looking on the BCMA website as well