Eckerd prides itself on its pet life and is even considered to be the “No. 1 Pet Friendly College” according to the Pet Life page on Eckerd’s website. But one of Pet Life’s most useful resources, wellness checks, are lesser known by the student body.
Are pets actually being protected if nobody knows the option is there?
Wellness checks are a resource for student pet owners to use, but some students aren’t aware that they can call for an anonymous wellness check on someone else’s pet.
“I had no clue, to be honest. I didn’t know students submitted them. That’s kind of crazy,” said Noah Ellis, a first-year studying marine geology.
“We do welfare checks based off reports, so we won’t go and check on an animal if we haven’t received a report or have reason to have concern for their welfare,” said Shayla Lapp, the assistant director of Residence Life and overseer of Pet Life.
These checks are done only when another student reports an incident of mistreatment. The mistreatment could range from neglect of the pet or that the student isn’t following the policies in place for that pet. All of this is anonymously submitted online through the Pet Life Incident Reporting Form in the Campus Housing website under Pet Life, then Policy.
“When we go in to do the wellness checks, our goal is to just assess and see what the case might be,” said Lapp.
A misconception students may have is that pets will be taken away. But the intention of the checks is to look for students who may be struggling with the demands of college or don’t fully understand how to care for their pets in this environment.
“We will talk with the student to ensure they understand their responsibility as a pet owner, expectations for care, provide resources, and, if needed, we will bring in animal services professionals as well,” said Lapp. Lapp said that calling the local Animal Services Department is a last ditch effort because the goal is to make sure the pet can be cared for by its owner.
Some students believe there isn’t enough being done by Pet Life and that RA’s should be used more for pet situations.
“I haven’t seen a single RA do a single check on pets… so I believe that we could do more checks and more observations,” said Valerie Harris, a sophomore animal studies student. One thing that makes students lose confidence on checks is the fact that the staff conducting the checks aren’t necessarily trained in this field.
“So we ourselves do not have the training, but we do go assess and then, if needed, refer to professionals,” said Lapp. The diversity of pets on campus calls for more understanding of them, with pets like snakes, chameleons, geckos, tarantulas, birds and even shrimp, all having different needs.
“I think doing research beforehand plays a role in it. Depending on what the animal is,” said Lapp. Pet Life has pet care guides online which provides detailed information on how students should be caring for all kinds of pets.
“We are recently collaborating more with faculty in animal studies to try to help inform our checks and inform some of our processes in Pet Life… Shoutout Dr. (Erin) Kidder (of Animal Studies),” Lapp said.
Collaborating with professors, who are experts in animal care, provides support for Pet Life and pets on campus. Their hope with including the professors is to gain a better understanding of what to look for with wellness checks, further improving pet life on campus.