Sadly, if you want a pet at Otterbein, you can’t have one with fur. That’s right, the pet policy at Otterbein University states, “For purposes of health and sanitation, only aquarium fish, hermit crabs and small turtles are allowed in any residential area with the agreement of roommate(s). Students are permitted one fish tank of 20 gallons or less per residential room.”
However, I think we should be able to have small rodents in our rooms, too. As long as the animal doesn’t have total freedom and as long as all persons of the room consent to the new pet, I would be perfectly okay with it. If they’re in the cage they can’t cause any destruction. The handbook also says that you need to provide a clean and healthy environment for your fish, so why can’t we do the same for other pets?
But what are the health and sanitation reasons? Sure, there’s bound to be somebody with an allergy to animal dandruff, but I’ve never heard of anybody having an attack through a door. But allergies aren’t the main concern. Tracy Benner, director of Residence Life, said that allowing other pets in dorms would lead to questions like, “How many? Are they allowed to have babies? What if somehow they pick up fleas?”
Students should only be allowed to have one small animal such as a rodent or small reptile per room. Limiting the number of pets to one would eliminate the fear of reproduction, and the owner should take care of their animal so that the possibility of fleas won’t be an issue.
Themed housing is a completely different story to me. I believe that on-campus theme house residents should be able to have any kind of animal they want. As a person who lives in a Greek house, I know that nothing in the house I live in even belongs to Otterbein. Everything in the house belongs solely to my fraternity and to the members of the organization. They are the ones responsible for anything that becomes damaged. Fewer people mean fewer risks of allergies. If everybody approves of the pet, then there should be no problem.
In my room, I have a 10-gallon tank with neon fish. But honestly, the school rejected my first choice, a chinchilla, because it had fur. What I wonder is how much different is a fish from a small mammal when it comes to pets? They’re both in a container that they can’t escape from, and they both require much care in order to survive.
There have been a few violations of this policy. “Usually, our pet violations are cats and dogs,” Benner said. But the pets have been well taken care of, and if people are willing to put in the work and responsibility of having a pet, they should be able to keep them. Contained animals pose no real health issue if taken care of properly. If everything stays clean like it should under normal conditions, then we should have a more diverse pet selection.
