This boy has a bright future.

While a seven-year-old may not have a concept of what "death" really is yet and may not understand that actions in this direction are irreversible, a 30-minute killing spree is extremely concerning. A blank expression while inflicting pain on animals? That does sound like an early indicator of later antisocial personality disorder - at 7, it's probably conduct disorder.

There has to be an intervention happening RIGHT NOW. While I do not agree with imprisoning 7-year-olds and I think the Australian law is right in that respect, I'm shocked to read that all that is going to happen is the zoo suing the parents. They need to find out what the hell is wrong with this boy!! Especially since the zoo director, in a different article, said that the family has a history of violence. Who knows what his home environment is like.

Ignoring the clear pathology behind this act is only going to make the problem worse. If it's reptiles at age seven, what will be next?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Actually, they do not fully grasp the concept until around age 9. At the psychiatric hospital for children and adolescents where I worked last summer, they had a 9-year-old girl whose brother had died. She had ticked on an evaluaton form that she often wished she were dead, but in conversation, it came out that she did not really have a full concept of death yet.

You can see the same in children's play: 6-year-olds frequently "kill" an animal, but then have it stand up again and continue their game. Their perspective is different from ours.

Nevertheless, I do agree that there was a pathological element in there, especially if he killed the animals himself and was emotionally unaffected by it. Children that age do understand inflicting pain on others, and he was probably dealing with animals who tried to escape, moving, possibly vocalizing their pain. It is definitely not "normal" behaviour for a 7-year-old.

There's nowhere I can't reach.