Well I have 4 cats and a toddler (2 years, soon 3) and I would never dream of giving the cats away if they scratched him, which on the whole has not happened often. However, the times he has pushed my youngest ginger cat Theo too far, he learned his lesson- nothing major but he realised that they have their limits (although big softie Lennie does not seem to have any...). He is now getting so much better and even has started to help me brush them and feed them treats. As has been said already, children have to learn but getting rid of an animal because it scratched, is not teaching any lessons or rather a bad one.