Every few months I get a call from a person in a hostel complaining that they have adopted a cat or a dog and the warden is now demanding that they get rid of the animal or they will be expelled. The hosteller says that they have had the animal vaccinated , keep it clean and it is loved by many students in the hostel but the warden is adamant because “animals are dirty and will bring disease and it is not in the rules”
All these premises are wrong. The animal is not dirty because I have seen college students go out of their way to keep them healthy and clean. Many of these animals have been born in or around the dormitory and have become the mascot of generations of college students. As far as the rules are concerned , there is nothing in any rule that says that you cannot keep animals – and if there is , it can be changed by general consent so easily. It is , after all, not the Constitution of India( which, by the way, enjoins each India to care for animals).
Children in hostels are often very lonely and alienated. Yes, they are surrounded by other students but each one of them is busy ion their own lives and dealing with their own anxieties. Making friends is hard in the beginning and the , having them available everytime you have free time or need someone to give you warmth and confidence , is even more difficult. Coming home to a room which has a kitten that needs to be fed or a puppy that wants to snuggle in your lap , can be so wonderfully reassuring and calming. If you need a study break, they don’t mind being disturbed by the sudden attention. They have a calming effect; they are an escape from the chaos of everyday life, and they are thankful for any kind of affection. Also, looking after an animal in a hostel is the quickest way to make friends. Students come by to pet the dog/cat and stay to become friends. Kitchen staff smuggle out leftovers . The entire world joins in a conspiracy of love to protect the animal from harm. The owner becomes a special person, one who stands out among all the thousand of others in the campus.
That does not mean that you bring your dog or cat from your home and keep it for company. This is ridiculous because you will not be taking the animal to class and after the first few initial days of having a familiar companion you will get busy. The animal will be left behind in your room and he/she will be as much of a stranger to her surroundings as you are so there is no question of her going on with any confidence. She may even get lost if she ventures out. So the animal will dirty the room and make its resident unpopular from day one. So do not dislocate your house companion .
What I am talking about is the animal you already find around the hostel. Each hotel has a few . many give birth to puppies or kittens and these are killed by the wardens illegally. These are the animals you should be adopting as soon as you become a hosteller. You need not keep them in a room. As soon as they are vaccinated – and sterilized , if you can – let them roam around as long as they know they have one fixed place for feeding. You could put them on a leash in the evenings and take them out on the campus for a run, this will benefit you more than the dog !
Make sure the animal is fed at least twice a day. As a hosteller you will probably have very limited pocketmoney . In which case you need to get all your friends to chip in to make the animal a ‘cause”.And , as I said before , make friends with the kitchen staff and the sweepers – in fact this whole exercise will probably turn you into a sweeter person in the effort of recruiting more people to look after the animal. Start by making friends with the warden , and if he/she is adamant start a signature drive – not about the dog – but about bad food or anything else that shows the warden’s incapacity for administration. I know this is wicked – but alls fair in love !
However, every year, animals are left in the lurch in hostels when the vacations begin. The students leave , the rooms are locked , food stops being made .
The dog /cat has no idea of what to do and often starves to death as they have established no other feeding places. If you are going to adopt a dog for your hostel years , make sure you make an arrangement for the months you are not there – maybe ask a teacher who lives nearby and leave a deposit of money or a local friend whom you trust.
Then when you finish your stint at the hostel, either take the animal home with you or introduce him/her to her next batch of caretakers and monitor what they do over a couple of months.
Ofcourse all this is dependent on how strong you have been in getting the warden to change his/her mind. It doesn’t take much , only strategy and once , one hostel does it , I can see most throwing this ugly rule out of the window. There is sufficient scientific proof that pets can alleviate stress, and top of all the places in the world that cause mass amounts of stress are college campuses. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) recognized this, and five years ago they began allowing residence halls to have cats. IF MIT can do it so can your hostel.
All these premises are wrong. The animal is not dirty because I have seen college students go out of their way to keep them healthy and clean. Many of these animals have been born in or around the dormitory and have become the mascot of generations of college students. As far as the rules are concerned , there is nothing in any rule that says that you cannot keep animals – and if there is , it can be changed by general consent so easily. It is , after all, not the Constitution of India( which, by the way, enjoins each India to care for animals).
Children in hostels are often very lonely and alienated. Yes, they are surrounded by other students but each one of them is busy ion their own lives and dealing with their own anxieties. Making friends is hard in the beginning and the , having them available everytime you have free time or need someone to give you warmth and confidence , is even more difficult. Coming home to a room which has a kitten that needs to be fed or a puppy that wants to snuggle in your lap , can be so wonderfully reassuring and calming. If you need a study break, they don’t mind being disturbed by the sudden attention. They have a calming effect; they are an escape from the chaos of everyday life, and they are thankful for any kind of affection. Also, looking after an animal in a hostel is the quickest way to make friends. Students come by to pet the dog/cat and stay to become friends. Kitchen staff smuggle out leftovers . The entire world joins in a conspiracy of love to protect the animal from harm. The owner becomes a special person, one who stands out among all the thousand of others in the campus.
That does not mean that you bring your dog or cat from your home and keep it for company. This is ridiculous because you will not be taking the animal to class and after the first few initial days of having a familiar companion you will get busy. The animal will be left behind in your room and he/she will be as much of a stranger to her surroundings as you are so there is no question of her going on with any confidence. She may even get lost if she ventures out. So the animal will dirty the room and make its resident unpopular from day one. So do not dislocate your house companion .
What I am talking about is the animal you already find around the hostel. Each hotel has a few . many give birth to puppies or kittens and these are killed by the wardens illegally. These are the animals you should be adopting as soon as you become a hosteller. You need not keep them in a room. As soon as they are vaccinated – and sterilized , if you can – let them roam around as long as they know they have one fixed place for feeding. You could put them on a leash in the evenings and take them out on the campus for a run, this will benefit you more than the dog !
Make sure the animal is fed at least twice a day. As a hosteller you will probably have very limited pocketmoney . In which case you need to get all your friends to chip in to make the animal a ‘cause”.And , as I said before , make friends with the kitchen staff and the sweepers – in fact this whole exercise will probably turn you into a sweeter person in the effort of recruiting more people to look after the animal. Start by making friends with the warden , and if he/she is adamant start a signature drive – not about the dog – but about bad food or anything else that shows the warden’s incapacity for administration. I know this is wicked – but alls fair in love !
However, every year, animals are left in the lurch in hostels when the vacations begin. The students leave , the rooms are locked , food stops being made .
The dog /cat has no idea of what to do and often starves to death as they have established no other feeding places. If you are going to adopt a dog for your hostel years , make sure you make an arrangement for the months you are not there – maybe ask a teacher who lives nearby and leave a deposit of money or a local friend whom you trust.
Then when you finish your stint at the hostel, either take the animal home with you or introduce him/her to her next batch of caretakers and monitor what they do over a couple of months.
Ofcourse all this is dependent on how strong you have been in getting the warden to change his/her mind. It doesn’t take much , only strategy and once , one hostel does it , I can see most throwing this ugly rule out of the window. There is sufficient scientific proof that pets can alleviate stress, and top of all the places in the world that cause mass amounts of stress are college campuses. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) recognized this, and five years ago they began allowing residence halls to have cats. IF MIT can do it so can your hostel.
Maneka Gandhi
