The Student Room Group

Why you shouldn't have pets in university halls.

You can't keep something like a cat, dog or anything else in such a small space in your room in halls of residence. You're not going to be in a lot of the time to feed it, go for walks, play with it, clean it out, etc. It's cruel to keep pets in such a small space.

The vast majority of people you'll be living with won't like it at all. For all you know, some of them could be allergic to whatever pet you want to bring in. They'll have to deal with noise and mess too. I guarantee you'll be relying on them to take your pet for walks or to feed it when you're busy in lectures, doing work in your room or going out doing other things, which isn't fair.

I'd refuse to live with anyone with a pet in halls; I don't want a pet making noise and scratching at doors when I'm trying to work. I don't want to be given responsbility for the welfare of someone else's pet. The pet won't even be safe; how do you know what people will do to it in halls when they're drunk? How do you know other people won't feed it things it will have a bad reaction to and hurt it? How do you know the pet won't attack someone out of fear?

You'll need to make financial allowances for food, sanitation, vet bills etc. On a student budget that's not going to be possible. What if on a drunken night in the kitchen someone accidentally hurts the pet and you get a £300+ vet bill you can't possibly afford? Every week you'll be buying food, sanitary products, possible toys and treats and other things which will eat into your money, leaving you unable to support or enjoy yourself.

Even if you want to take a hamster or something small, don't. You'll still have to pay for its food, health and sanitation. Get a pet when you graduate and have a stable job, so you can look after it properly.
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 1
Original post by Fusionflare
You can't keep something like a cat, dog or anything else in such a small space in your room in halls of residence. You're not going to be in a lot of the time to feed it, go for walks, play with it, clean it out, etc. It's cruel to keep pets in such a small space.

The vast majority of people you'll be living with won't like it at all. For all you know, some of them could be allergic to whatever pet you want to bring in. They'll have to deal with noise and mess too. I guarantee you'll be relying on them to take your pet for walks or to feed it when you're busy in lectures, doing work in your room or going out doing other things, which isn't fair.

I'd refuse to live with anyone with a pet in halls; I don't want a pet making noise and scratching at doors when I'm trying to work. I don't want to be given responsbility for the welfare of someone else's pet. The pet won't even be safe; how do you know what people will do to it in halls when they're drunk? How do you know other people won't feed it things it will have a bad reaction too and hurt it? How do you know the pet won't attack someone out of fear?

You'll need to make financial allowances for food, sanitation, vet bills etc. On a student budget that's not going to be possible. What if on a drunken night in the kitchen someone accidentally hurts the pet and you get a £300+ vet bill you can't possibly afford? Every week you'll be buying food, sanitary products, possible toys and treats and other things which will eat into your money, leaving you unable to support or enjoy yourself.

Even if you want to take a hamster or something small, don't. You'll still have to pay for its food, health and sanitation. Get a pet when you graduate and have a stable job so you can look after it properly.


I agree that its hard to take proper care of animals in halls, especially those which dont allow pets. But I dont see a problem with having pets when you move out into private rented accommodation, if your housemates are okay with it (better if its a pet that can be kept in your room like a small rodent). A huge number of people in the UK rent and have pets, why should students be any different? Not all students are irresponsible. I agree that if you cant afford the time or money to look after your pet you shouldnt get one, but that applies to everyone, not just uni students :smile:
Reply 2
Original post by Kaiaaa
I agree that its hard to take proper care of animals in halls, especially those which dont allow pets. But I dont see a problem with having pets when you move out into private rented accommodation, if your housemates are okay with it (better if its a pet that can be kept in your room like a small rodent). A huge number of people in the UK rent and have pets, why should students be any different? Not all students are irresponsible. I agree that if you cant afford the time or money to look after your pet you shouldnt get one, but that applies to everyone, not just uni students :smile:


Even the most reponsible student has every chance of being saddled with a very expensive vet bill they can't afford. When people have stable jobs they can accomodate for things like that to happen, rather than dipping into their student loan and not being able to support themselves.
Reply 3
Original post by Fusionflare
Even the most reponsible student has every chance of being saddled with a very expensive vet bill they can't afford. When people have stable jobs they can accomodate for things like that to happen, rather than dipping into their student loan and not being able to support themselves.


Two words: Pet Insurance.
Reply 4
Original post by zaliack
Two words: Pet Insurance.


What about the time needed to look after pets, noise, mess, insurance payments, food and sanitation to be paid for, the feelings of the pet, the health and feelings of the people you'll live with, etc? Pet insurance doesn't make all these problems go away.
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 5
Your flatmate might also end up cooking it on a frying pan =/
Reply 6
Original post by Fusionflare
What about the time needed to look after pets, noise, mess, insurance payments, food and sanitation to be paid for, the feelings of the pet, the health and feelings of the people you'll live with, etc? Pet insurance doesn't make all these problems go away.


Hire a nanny, and go to bank of Dad.

Sorted.
Reply 7
Also you could have a **** like this as a housemate;;

http://www.studentbeans.com/student101/a/food-02/wasted-york-student-fries-housemates-hamster3900.html

:redface:

Seriously though, assuming your housemates are relatively normal I don't see a problem with something small like a hamster or fish. I was thinking of getting these, but apparently they're short lived;
(edited 11 years ago)
I'd be surprised if you can find any university halls that would allow you to keep any sort of animal there (besides service animals).
Reply 9
Yeah, I enquired whether or not I'd be able to take my cat to Uni, but apparently it's not allowed..
Reply 10
I can't understand why anyone would even try and take their pet to halls. I know people love their pets and all but surely it's just common sense that it wont be able to come to uni with you.
Because sooner or later through drunkenness or laziness someone is gonna try and eat it.
(edited 11 years ago)
who the **** is keeping pets in halls. that is ridiculous. absurd. a fish or a hamster maybe, but a dog? that's ****brained.
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 13
Original post by ed-
Also you could have a **** like this as a housemate;;

http://www.studentbeans.com/student101/a/food-02/wasted-york-student-fries-housemates-hamster3900.html

:redface:

Seriously though, assuming your housemates are relatively normal I don't see a problem with something small like a hamster or fish. I was thinking of getting these, but apparently they're short lived;


Where can you get those from? :eek: Theyre amazing!
While I know it's tempting to keep pets (mine is a campus of exclusively vet nurses, animal biologists and zoologists), it's a mixture of the welfare implications and the risks, from the landlord/ landlady's point of view. Our halls are STRICTLY no pets allowed for very good reasons, one being bio security. This year's privately rented house allows pets, but the four of us have agreed that already owned pets stay at our permanent homes, and we only take on rehab- cases with all four of us consenting. No one wants to fit twice-daily dogs walks and four-hourly baby bird feelings around dissertation and exam revision!
Original post by Fusionflare
You can't keep something like a cat, dog or anything else in such a small space in your room in halls of residence. You're not going to be in a lot of the time to feed it, go for walks, play with it, clean it out, etc. It's cruel to keep pets in such a small space.

The vast majority of people you'll be living with won't like it at all. For all you know, some of them could be allergic to whatever pet you want to bring in. They'll have to deal with noise and mess too. I guarantee you'll be relying on them to take your pet for walks or to feed it when you're busy in lectures, doing work in your room or going out doing other things, which isn't fair.

I'd refuse to live with anyone with a pet in halls; I don't want a pet making noise and scratching at doors when I'm trying to work. I don't want to be given responsbility for the welfare of someone else's pet. The pet won't even be safe; how do you know what people will do to it in halls when they're drunk? How do you know other people won't feed it things it will have a bad reaction to and hurt it? How do you know the pet won't attack someone out of fear?

You'll need to make financial allowances for food, sanitation, vet bills etc. On a student budget that's not going to be possible. What if on a drunken night in the kitchen someone accidentally hurts the pet and you get a £300+ vet bill you can't possibly afford? Every week you'll be buying food, sanitary products, possible toys and treats and other things which will eat into your money, leaving you unable to support or enjoy yourself.

Even if you want to take a hamster or something small, don't. You'll still have to pay for its food, health and sanitation. Get a pet when you graduate and have a stable job, so you can look after it properly.


Dogs and cats do take a bit of work and can cost quite a lot if something goes wrong. But you're seriously overestimated the cost and effort of a hamster. In a cage they make minimal mess (aka cleanable in about 20 seconds), are quite independent so don't need too much attention, quite especially during the day, cost around £20 maintenance max a month and its extremely rare to find someone with any allergy to one that's not fake. While the benefits include companionship, sense of purpose and a better state of mental health to the owner and those close to the owner. And to keep it safe just lock your room. You could really just close it, people that drunk can barely work their own legs let alone a door handle.
Original post by zaliack
Two words: Pet Insurance.


My family has a cat (12 years old) and he’s developed a health issue. We’ve always scraped together money for bills but think he may have a long term issue so just looked into pet insurance.
Yeah, no.
£30 a month is quite a bit but worth it for our boy. This is for the BEST policy (lifetime support for issues), at the most reasonable price.
Except:
> two week wait period before we can claim
> if they believe his health issue existed before we started the policy, or during the two week wait period, they don’t pay out
> they offer death pay outs - except if he dies of anything over age 8, or from an accident, illness, organ issue, surgical error. So literally nothing
> they don’t cover flea treatment, neutering, organ transplants, dental care
> there’s an excess of £60-100 - so we pay that before they even consider paying out
> you pay EVERYTHING upfront, they MIGHT pay you back later. If they can’t find an excuse not to pay out
> health issues are capped per year, even on the most expensive policies. Something like a max of a few hundred or possibly £1000 a year per health issue. Which sounds like a lot - until you realise one checkup is around £100
> they offer at best a few pennies for vet required changes in diet - at worst, nothing.

And we’ve looked at seven or eight policies! So no, pet insurance is not the easy answer.

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