<p>I'm heading to UGA in January and if I get a spot in the dorms, my pup will have to wait a bit to move with me. The good thing is that around colleges it is not that hard to find a pet friendly apartment complex or a home owner renting out a room who loves animals. I'm also lucky because my dog is under 25 pounds (or is supposed to be anyways) so more places allow him. I like the idea of pet friendly dorms, there are certain things that would mess it up for others, like if another student neglects their pet, someone has a loud or stinky dog... but hopefully anything too horrible would have repercussions - while college students are technically adults, not all adults are fit pet owners either. I know that at UVM the RAs were allowed animals - most had dogs, from the tiny to the huge.</p>
<p>D's university housing rules re pets: fish only in the freshman housing. Some boys got a dog and named him "Fish". Always got a laugh out of that one. (The boys did get to keep their Fish. :)) The dorms are apartment-style, so it worked well enough.</p>
<p>Cats in dorm rooms is a no-no in my opinion. Besides the obvious issue of the litter box (in a dorm room...GROSS!!!), there's also the issue of giving them some space to walk around. Cats can't be taken for walks on leash like dogs (most cats, at least...some can), so they need some area to roam. A small apartment is enough room for cats, but not a tiny dorm room. I suppose they could be let out into the hall if the entire hall is pet friendly, but if everyone was letting kitty out to walk madness would surely ensure. I guess the benefit is there probably are no problems with critters.</p>
<p>My son, who has never owned a cat but really misses his dog, enjoys his cat floor at MIT. Many doors are left open on their floor so the cats can roam to visit different rooms. He says the cats help to de-stress after a rough day/week. These cats belong to specific people, so they're usually taken home over holidays and summer. However, their dorm never closes and someone is always living there, so the ones who stay take care of any cats who stay.</p>
<p>I think the owners keep the litter boxes in their rooms (singles).</p>
<p>I think it's completely INHUMANE to have cats or dogs in a dorm room.</p>
<p>I waited until my junior year to move off campus, and now I have 2 cats. They have lots of room to move around and their litter box is away from our kitchen and bedrooms which I think is important. </p>
<p>I think it's pretty selfish to be so impatient that you can't even wait til you move off campus to get a pet. Animals aren't common property- they have feelings and rights, and being cooped up in a dorm room violates those rights.</p>
<p>People are allergic to everything from peanuts to perfume. You can't make any environment completely allergy-free. Personally, I've been really torn recently about what's going to happen when I go to college, and I'm still just a junior in high school - I can't stand the idea of leaving my cat behind, but having to get an apartment seems expensive and inconvenient. I do see the problems, but I have to say I like the idea of having some "pets-allowed" dorms. I think it's less of an issue than people tend to make it.</p>
<p>apparently humboldt allows non-mammals in the dorms. snakes, birds, and fish count! you just have to have your roomie sign a form with you.</p>
<p>Rice allows fish, but that's it. But they're not strict about a lot of things here and you could probably get away with keeping a small pet as long as you keep it under the radar... I have a friend that has a hamster here, for example.</p>
<p>People are actually allergic to cat saliva, and they think it's cat hair because cat's lick their fur away.</p>
<p>Therefore...why not a dorm full of hairless cats? :)</p>
<p>Here we are allowed to have fish in a tank that is no larger than 5 gallons. Quite frankly, even though I REALLY miss my dog, I wouldn't want her here. There is nowhere for her to go in the dorm because the rooms are so small. I also am annoyed enough by the girl in the room next to me--I can't imagine if she had a dog! You'd also have to worry about all the animals getting along and them escaping or whatever.</p>
<p>I really think that having any sort of animal that can't live comfortably in a very small area (think like a 5 gallon tank), then you shouldn't have it.</p>
<p>Reed Dog Lore: Reed</a> College Admission Office</p>
<p>When I visited Caltech, they have cats in some of their dorms too.</p>
<p>I am a frosh at MIT now. Just want to point out a LOT of people have singles here, including freshmen(basically you can get one if you wanted to). They are generally nice sized too. Cats are only on certain floor of certain dorms (the more "liberal" geeky dorms). If you have allergies, it is pretty easy to stay away from those places. A friend of mine is a bit allergic to cats, but he still chose to live in a cat hall anyways, since he loves having the cat for company in his room.</p>
<p>Cats aren't a big deal when you compare them to smoking permitted halls or clothes optional halls.</p>
<p>As a cat lover, I protest postone's mention of Reed dogs but not cats: </p>
<p>"Theme dorms include a food co-op, a dorm for people interested in outdoor activities, a classics dorm, a film dorm, and a cat dorm."</p>
<p>I must disagree, lilybbloom- I believe living in a dorm with a person who loves you is a much more humane scenario for pets... being cooped up in a dorm room might not be the best situation for /some/ animals, but for many, many others, it would be heaven. Take for example, shelter animals. For cats, most shelters use those small, square-shaped metal stacked cages- sometimes three and four high! The cats never get roam, they barely have space to lay down without touching their litter box and the only interaction they have with humans is from the cage cleaning or from potential adopters gawking at them and sticking fingers through the bars. This is also the case for many dogs, especially at understaffed, underfunded shelters. Oh, maybe you can change the metal to wire and give them just enough room as specified by Dept. of Agriculture standards, but all those unfortunate dogs have is space to turn around in and /hopefully/ some time outside to relieve themselves and perhaps play- if they're cute.
I would much prefer a dorm room, whatever animal I am. Yes, there would need to be regulations, and assurances that the animal will have proper, humane care and, if needed, exercise. But I doubt that a responsible pet guardian or owner would fall short of giving the animal what it deserves. And certainly fostering animals from shelters would be a great idea, allowing those animals to live in a loving situation free of only a tiny space to call their own, and allowing interested families to meet the animal in a less stressful situation. I speak as a shelter and kennel worker, lifetime animal advocate and lover... responsible pet friendly dorms work, and work well and humanely.</p>
<p>And as far as litterboxes go... fork up the money for deodorizers and/or scent-capturing, scoopable litter. It's really not that expensive in the long run, and if it is maintained, there should not be any issues.</p>
<p>oh sweet. i was totally bummed about not being able to bring my hamster.</p>
<p>haha that is exactly what i wanted to say especially the part about the apartments. you cant avoid that stuff completely and i would have said something myself but i didnt feel like signing up. but in the end i did anyway.</p>
<p>So…why did this thread get bumped?</p>
<p>I think its an interesting idea, though can see noise (with dogs especially) being a problem.</p>
<p>I just moved off campus and brought my dogs with me. Problem solved.</p>
<p>FYI, Stephens is in Columbia, MISSOURI, not Montana.</p>
<p>My daughter (now a freshman in college) got a brochure from Stephens and quickly noticed the photo of the girl in her dorm room holding her little Paris dog and the idea intrigued her enough to do a campus visit. Stephens is all female and is often called the “Wellesley of the Midwest.” However, my daughter decided to go to the real Wellesley instead.</p>
<p>So like a 3 min ride from my school there’s a guy who likes cows. He’s got maybe 50 of them. Maybe more. Another guy likes pigs. he’s got at few dozen. Oh and then there’s the sheep. They go bahhh. </p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong I love my steak, A1 burgers, ham, and wool sweaters. I also give so much credit to our nation’s farmers for doing what they do. But I’m a business major. Finance to be specific. And finding an internship during the school year is about likely as the sky turning orange.</p>
<p>Get me to a fokking city already. </p>
<p>K i’m done :)</p>