Senior Ariel Kostrinsky had two cats, a male named Ash and a female named Kanye, in her off-campus apartment last year before she was forced to give them away after her landlord spotted them.
Patrick Carroll, the acting director of the Delaware Humane Association, said in order to avoid situations like Kostrinksy’s, the Humane Association requires landlords to give permission before they will allow a college student to adopt a pet.
“The biggest factor is that people have the right space for a pet and also their lifestyle allows for it,” Carroll said. “Most college students are compromised in those areas.”
Anne Cavanaugh, executive director of the SPCA, said she agrees that college living arrangements are one reason she doesn’t see too many university students adopt pets.
“It’s kind of hard for us to adopt to college students because of their transitory living situations,” Cavanaugh said. “Our adoption criteria are that you own your own home, or if you don’t own your own home then you have your landlord’s written permission. If not, then we don’t adopt to them.”Before her cats were evicted, Kostrinsky made sure to have them fixed despite the high costs at the vet.
“We wanted to get the boy neutered so that they wouldn’t start doing it, you know?” she said. “We knew he would get really hormonal if we didn’t. Just to get a checkup and do simple procedural things like cut their nails, it was ridiculous.”
Kostrinksy said she stopped going to the vet with her pets because she could not afford it.
Carroll said pet ownership is an expensive endeavor for a college student.
“It is a financial commitment when it comes to food and medicine and veterinary care,” he said. “I know college students are busy and they sometimes work on top of going to school so it’s just a matter of making sure they can handle it.”
Carroll said pet ownership is a big responsibility, and maybe it’s not the best time in students life to have a pet.
However, he said he certainly understands why a college student would want to have a pet.
“Dogs and cats are great company, and they’re good for exercise,” Carroll said. “And we believe that they help with stress, and God knows you have a lot of stress in college.”
He also said despite the financial burden of owning a pet, money should not be too much of a problem in most cases because of low-cost programs like the new SPCA facility and the spay and neuter services offered at the Humane Association.
“We provide low cost spay/neuter surgery for the public,” Carroll said. “There shouldn’t be the excuse that it’s too expensive because it’s pretty affordable here.”
Cavanaugh said the organization recently opened a new low-cost spay and neuter clinic at their Stanton facility.
“We’ve wanted to implement or create something like this for many years,” Cavanaugh said, referring to the Jane R. Haggard Spay/Neuter Clinic, which opened on Sept. 10.
While the SPCA has always offered sterilization services, the new clinic will more than triple the amount of animals the SPCA can spay or neuter in a year.
“We did have a clinic here before, but it was much smaller and we were limited as to the number of animals we could get done,” she said. “We used to do about 2,200 animals a year. We’re planning to do over 7,000 now.”
Carroll said it is important to spay or neuter animals.
He said there are many benefits to having animals spayed or neutered.
“It eliminates unwanted litters, it reduces fighting and roaming, it reduces the risk of certain cancers and of course it reduces the homelessness of pets,” he said. “If you have animals reproducing, you have more animals, so you end up with more homeless animals.”
Junior Brittany Fischer lives in an off-campus apartment with her Chihuahua, Koda. Fischer, who bought Koda as a puppy from a local pet store and had him neutered by a veterinarian, said owning a pet is more expensive than she thought it would be.
“My parents paid for a lot of stuff when we first got him when I was living at home, but now that he lives with me I pay for pretty much everything,” Fisher said. “I mean, the vet bill just for his yearly checkup is like $150, and we constantly have to get his nails cut, and buy him food and treats and everything else.”
She said she wishes she had known about low-cost spaying and neutering facilities like the SPCA’s Jane R. Haggard Clinic and the Delaware Humane Association’s program.
“I feel like the vet charges so much,” said Fischer, who estimated the cost to have Koda neutered was around $300 or $400 dollars.
“Owning a pet is definitely expensive, but it’s worth it,” she said.
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