I'm not gonna sugar coat this but I'm also gonna try to refrain from putting my opinions out there on this one, so I'm gonna try and keep this as factual as I can:
Starter info- My family recently got a kitten, she's about 4-5 months old, social, curious, etc, great cat honestly. The cat belongs to my younger brother, who has wanted a cat for almost two years now, so my parents finally caved (against my recommendations but hey, they're in charge.) The reason I told them not to get him a cat, has two parts:
He's has low-mild autism
he's got a temper issue
Before any of you get butthurt about autism - He's my brother. I'd take a bullet for him, no matter how badly I despise him. But this is like putting Steven Hawking behind the wheel of an F1 Formula Racecar: not a good idea. He (my brother) has little to no social skills, his basic logistical thinking is on par with a 1st grader, and his sense of moral responsibility stops where it doesn't affect him.
The issue at hand- Every day is the same thing in our house: we go about our lives, spend our free time playing video games and all is calm and well. Things go downhill about every 2-5 minutes, or whenever he has a break in his games. For example, just this evening he was playing some farming game, and after his crops were planted and he had to wait for them to grow, he turns in his chair, forcively shoves his arm into the cat's enclosed bed, and acts like his hand is a blender, complete with hissing sounds, "quit biting me stupid cat!", putting his face at the opening of the cat's bed, pulling her OUT of her bed, holding her against her will in his arms (usually for about a full 5 minutes), and then shoves her back in to her bed when his game is ready.
If you want the TL;DR, look at the red
When many of you clicked on this topic, I imagine in your head came images of poor puppies hit by cars and barely alive, kittens blind in one eye from a gun accident, cigarette burns on a rottweiler, etc. But that's obviously not the case here. Where do you draw the line on 'rough play' and then it's 'cruelty'
*side note:
he's fully aware the cat is crying, all three of us (mom, dad and I) have spoken to him about it in varying degrees of seriousness on a daily basis, He knows it's not okay
