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Did you get perhaps a kitten or a puppy with the promise from your child that he would help take care of this new pet, or even that he would take total care of this new pet, and he doesn't want to do anything towards the care?
First of all in my epinion children below the age of 11 just don't have the mental or physical ability to care for a pet on their own, naturally some children are more mature than others and older children at perhaps thirteen aren't mature enough so please take the age plus the maturity of the child into consideration before assigning them the care of a new kitten or puppy. Sure the child has good intentions, but when it comes to the day in, day out, care of this pet then he changes his mind. At this point you will need to take over some responsibility for the kitten or puppy and take over until such time as he is responsible enough to manage the care or at least part of the care.
If you add pet care chores to the list of daily chores for the child this might help, just as he has to pick up clothes from the floor in his room and put them in a dirty clothes hamper he has to put fresh water and food in the kitten or puppy's dish daily. If he is to do this before coming to the dinner table, tell him he needs to go do this,
and if you all need to, wait a few minutes till his chore is done.
You might try this approach, tell him before school that if he doesn't do his before school chore regarding his kitten or puppy that you will be doing this yourself as the pet will not be neglected but that when he gets in from school he will need to do at least one of your chores, such
as running the vacuum. A few times of doing a chore of yours as opposed to putting out fresh water and food for the kitten or puppy will surely change his mind and attitude.
Another approach is if you are doing all the work for the pet, then it will be entirely yours, you will get to play games with the kitten or puppy and brush him and play with him, and the child who does not want to care for him will not have the time with the pet, this is the last step approach but it may just do the job.
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