Many parents consider keeping pets being beneficial for their children, whilst others believe pets to be harmful and unsafe. I wholeheartedly agree with the first opinion, because kids are likely to learn much when looking after pets.
On the one hand, keeping pets alongside with children is known to be dangerous for both. For instance, while enfants are rarely observed to be scratched by cats or be bitten by a dog, pets, especially the small ones, often die from suffocation in kids hugs. In addition, death of a favourite pet may be delivering a psychological trauma, which frequently has a dramatic negative affect on the mental health of a kid.
On the other hand, children are expected to gain much essential experience when taking care of their pets. Firstly, children massively improve their organisational skills when they get to keep track of the nutrition of their pets and remembering to go for a walk with a dog. Kids also get an experience of paying close attention to someone, i.e. noticing any abnormal behaviour. Secondly, pets are often the first creatures young adults can be responsible for, hence developing this essential skill at a very young age. Yet, the fear of doing something wrong is normally not persistent.
Summarizing the above, keeping pets may be dangerous for both pets and children, as well as being a potential source of a psychological trauma. However, the variety of skills and qualities, i.e. organisation, attentiveness and being responsible, developed when taking care of a pet outweigh all the potential risks.