I know this may sound a little overboard until you hear the story I have to tell. My mother in law bought my daughter these zhu zhu pet hamsters and while at first glance they were cute until I saw the commercials of children hitting the hamsters back (where the button is) to get it to move. Ever since seeing this commercial my daughter has taken to not only hitting the hamster to get it to move but I have also caught her doing it to our cat and dog (which she has NEVER done in the past). She has always been very gentle with our animals in the past so this struck me as a little bit weird. When I asked she said "that's how you make the animals move". Since then I have been reinforcing the idea that we pet animals not push them (which also works to get the hamster to move btw), but I just wonder why wouldn't a company think of that when creating a toy commercial and try to avoid the outcome of children all over the world thinking that it is okay to hit animals b/c that's how they get them to move on television. I know it sounds exaggerated but seeing how my 2 year old reacted to it makes me worry especially since lately I am seeing news reports about children and adults alike being caught abusing animals and seeing nothing wrong with what they did...if you don't believe me look up the story about the two boys who put their pet in a microwave and threw it out of a second story building or the story on hoarders about a woman who had what was believed to be over 50 animals living in her home(most were found dead or sick, only about 20 of them were okay when animal control intervened)...
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