Are College Pets At All a Good Idea?

It isn't really clear why, but stray dogs and cats are very common around college campuses. Students may not show up at college with a pet from home. But once they do arrive, when they see all these cats and dogs going round, they like to adopt them. These animals become college pets - pets for the time that the students are in college. Often, those college students get so attached to those college pets that they take them home.

Often, college pets don't become house pets after those students graduate. The students just take them to the nearest shelter and let them go. Most often, it isn't even a sound idea to adopt a pet when you're at college. When you become friends with an animal, you become responsible for it.

Students have to try very hard to be able to afford college often. They get loans, they work on the side - they have to scrape everything together to go to college. They don't usually have any idea how much it's going to cost when they adopt a pet.

Let's say that a student adopts a dog, and it swallows something that it's not supposed to swallow. At the vet's, it can easily cost $1000 to have the object removed. When you add up everything that you have to spend on dog food and add the vet bills and everything else, those costs can easily go up to $5000 a year. Where's a student supposed to go for that kind of money?

Not to mention, most colleges don't allow pets in the dorm. When students adopt college pets, they do the on-the-sly. The few schools that do allow college pets have strict rules on the subject. Because pets can induce allergies in people. They won't put a dorm member with a pet in a room where the other dorm members might be allergic.

If you are any student who is considering taking a pet in at college, you should think about a few things first. For instance, pets need care. As anyone who takes a pet in, you need to be able provide care. The busy student really may not be able to do this. If a pet is an absolute necessity, a cat is always better than a dog because they need less care. They can be left alone for long period of time every day.

Any student who thinks about adopting a pet at college should carefully total up everything that a year of care might cost. If it's a young puppy, it's going to need even more care and attention and money.

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