A mom forced her son to kill his hamster as a punishment. What do you think her punishment should be?

OMG! I don't even have words for how horrible this is. This is wrong on so many different levels that it sickens me.

Animal cruelty should be one charge and I would think children's services might get involved as well. These are both not pleasant as both may require legal services. Is the value of a creature's life that unimportant to this woman?

There are studies that show that people who willingly hurt animals will also willingly hurt people. This is why veterinarians are often on the look out for animal abuse (besides the obvious) because it could also be a sign of abuse in the home. But worse than that, what kind of guilt will this poor kid grow up with.

I know how bad I have felt when I have accidentally caused harm to my animals. My pet conure of 15 years got out of the house because of a broken screen that he flew into. I was not able to recover him.It took me two years to be able to say that without crying.

This child will have to live with doing that for the rest of his life. He might chalk it up to something he couldn't control in his youth but I think he may have problems later in life. He might be haunted by this wanton murder forever.

Bad grades are not punishable by death. This woman needs some serious therapy before she brings harm to something or someone else.

I agree with all that has been said. Reading this makes me sick to my stomach, but unfortunately people like this, do exist. This reminds me of the Sybil and I am Dave stories.

They lived with psychotic moms. I think the court should ordered the woman to be examined by psychologists/ psychiatrists and then she must go to court mandated therapist. Her son should be take care of someone else (perhaps his father or extended family, to reduce the trauma) until she's deemed mentally healthy enough to be a parent again, and even then someone should check her up periodically.

Her boy should also be examined by a child psychologist.

The mom's punishment should be mandatory psychiatric help. Sheesh. She needs to realize that serial killers start out killing small animals, and not to encourage this kind of senseless slaughter.

At first when I saw this question I thought No Way. Then there it is.. I cant even imagine having a child do this. This woman has problems that go far beyond being a terrible mother.

I am glad that she is in jail if I was the judge on this she would get the max sentence for all crimes she is charged with. Hopefully they will take her kids away from her. She is doing harm to her children mentally.

Wow. That is truly unbelievable. The tricky part is, kids don't see their parents like other people do.

They can be terrified, angry, and still madly in love with their mom. Whatever the mom's punishment (I agree with some psychological treatment as well as confinement), if it's possible for her to have some contact with her son (supervised of course, and only if he wants it) that needs to be facilitated. Sometimes we get so into punishing the parents that we forget that kids do the time right along with their mom or dad.

That poor little boy may be traumatized all over again by losing his mom. He may even think it's his fault. The entire family needs to be in counseling together, as well as apart.

I actually went to a training today that talked about how traumatic experiences for young children can change the physical structure of their brain, as stress hormones can kill brain cells. That poor little guy needs to be nurtured and taken care of while his mother gets help and does her time. She has probably done him a great deal of trauma in his life, during many, many incidents.

I live in Georgia, quite close to the scene of the crime actually. I think it is sad really. But to answer your question, I think she should be remanded to a psych facility.

She obviously has problems. I think that she should be taken out of the parent pool. I hope the child has other relatives, because I hate the idea of foster homes.

If she thinks her son's grades were bad this time, what does she think they will be like after all this has happened?

I like the death penalty. Maybe to set a strong example for anyone considering this sort of punishment for their child this Georgia mom should be punished by forcing her to kill her own son .. for her failing grade in parenting. This instant removal of the right to be a parent should deter this sort of behavior in the future.

If this were to happen the massive media sandstorm would no doubt bring this to a planetary level. Everyone would have heard of the Georgia mom who forced her kid to kill a hamster and then as punishment was sentenced to kill the very son she was trying to punish. Kids would get better grades and fewer hamsters and most importantly moms who are psychopaths will have to find different ways of expressing the complete lack of feeling/emotion they have been handicapped with.

I think she should receive the same punishment as if it had been his father who came up with this perverse idea. Child abuse, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and animal cruelty charges, to begin.

Unreal what a bone head that woman is... first of all.. I do not consider her a mom she is a mother.. moms nurture kids in loving ways with normal discipline tossed in.. mothers are not nurturing they are mean spirited women who have had children bad grades in no way equal killing a pet.. look at the crap this woman is teaching her kid.. 1. ) its okay to abuse animals. 2.) its okay to kill animals.

3. ) its okay to mess up a kids head by showing him such things.. the list goes on.. what a bonehead she is..

This is completely insane. What ever happened to having to weed the garden, or scrub the floors, or being grounded to your room? The only thing this parent accomplished here is ensuring her son will have emotion and psychological issues.

What do I think should happen to the mom? A complete psychological evaluation. That child needs to be placed with a family member or foster care, and have extensive therapy.

How anyone could subject their child to this type of torture is beyond me. And that's exactly what this act was, torture. Well, sorry honey but since your grades weren't what we expected of you, you're going to have to brutally murder your beloved pet.

You'll know better next time won't you? Whatever her punishment actually is, will certainly not be adequate for the crime. And we wonder why the youth today has such a horrid moral fiber.

Hmmm I wonder?

She should be charged with mental cruelty and child abuse. She should have to sit ther while the kid hits her once with the hammer. But she should have a nice life with the serial killer she is programming.

They say they all start with animals.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.