Abandoned animals are OC's problem

To the Editors:

My name is Elena Perez, and I am an Oberlin College Alumna (OC '94). As a student I volunteered at OAS (then OASIS) regularly for over a year, walking dogs, cleaning cages, and feeding the many strays who came into the OAS shelter. In the ever-varying weather of Oberlin, I was there to care for the animals that so many others had neglected and abandoned. Now I hear that the SFC has chosen to all but eliminate the funding for the OAS, granting them only 3 percent of estimated operating expenses because as far as the SFC is concerned, these animals are not Oberlin College's problem. Well, I say they are. I say that as long as Oberlin College students purchase animals for a semester and discard them like furniture at the end of the year, it is Oberlin's problem. I say as long as stray cats cry for food behind the Facilities building, it is Oberlin's problem. And as long as administrative officials put cat poison behind Peters, it is Oberlin's problem. The OAS shelter and Ex-Co class exemplify the "Learning and LABOR" philosophy and once made Oberlin College the needle of this nation's moral compass. Don't throw away our tradition of service to the community for the sake of a few dollars.

-Elena Perez, OC '94

Please don't be a temporary owner; commit to your animals

To the Editors:

Last night the population of Oberlin stray animals who have moved into my house over the past thirteen years dropped from five to four. I feel moved to plead with anyone wanting a temporary pet here to extend their fling with the animal to a good solid fifteen year commitment, day and night, week in and week out. I love the two dogs and three cats who were all someone else's discards, but I had not planned on being life's last resort for any of them.

Through the years I have seen many anxious and slowly deteriorating cats in my north campus neighborhood. I dread their first appearances in late May. The pattern is always the same - months go by and the cat's fur becomes rough and its face bleak. The animals are furtive and unable to rest. The ones who begin to show signs of injury or a limp soon disappear. The almost universal fate of lost animals comes from untreated infections which give them months of misery before they finally die.

However, the pets who live in my house now all made a choice at some point to start sleeping on my porch. What to do in response to those sad faces but start putting food out? My lost and found ads have never brought a call. Months go by and when winter sets in I surrender and open the door. The vet gets another fat check for vaccinations and neutering and another innocent creature finds that warm bed and full food dish that someone promised a long time ago. Now all our pets love the moment and they love each other. There are a lot of kisses between cats and dogs in my house.

The last cat to come was feral. He had the chiseled muscular look of a bobcat and he bolted at any sign of humans. I fed him for over a year. Then in the middle of a blizzard he disappeared and I knew one more pet had a hopeless ending. But one night a few weeks later there was a wobbly shadow at my feet and I realized the seriously injured cat had made it onto my porch and collapsed. He had no where else to go. Of course I responded to this poor animal's last shred of trust for humans. After nine days at the pet hospital he also moved in, and transformed himself into a loudly purring happy pet. During the next 20 months, various wounds weren't healing well and he had little surgeries here and there in an attempt to get him patched up. His decision to trust people made him the only cat I've ever seen who at the sight of the pink amoxicillon eyedropper would squint his eyes closed and sit patiently with his mouth wide open. I didn't even have to touch him to give him medicine.

But last week he suddenly became very thin and sometime yesterday his little heart stopped. I think about the years of misery these pets knew before they beat the odds and found a home. When domesticated animals are abandoned, they don't become wild and free, they become miserable. I hope no more turn up at my house because I can't afford to do this forever. The students who are respectful pet owners and who give so much to OASIS have my eternal gratitude.

-Lizette Benzing, Art Cataloging Assistant