For the many students at NC State who love animals or miss their pets from home, there is a club designed to answer their needs. The Companion Animal Club is intended to provide a space for animal lovers of all stripes. The club seeks to offer opportunities to interact with, learn about and help and advocate for all different types of animals. From the familiar cats and dogs most students grew up with to exotic creatures like the tigers of the Carolina Tiger Rescue, the Companion Animal Club is on the prowl.
“NC State is very agriculturally centered, so there are a lot of other clubs like zoology, animal science, and pre-vet that are more major-centered and professionalism centered,” said Virginia-Lynne McKean, president of the Companion Animal Club and a senior studying animal science. “Our club likes to offer a place for people who love animals and want to get to know more about them — it doesn’t matter what your major is or your ideas after graduation.”
The Companion Animal Club is also smaller than many of the major-centric clubs, which caters well to some personalities.
“When I was a freshman, I tried out a bunch of clubs,” said Brittany White, vice president of the club and also a senior studying animal science. “I liked that the Companion Animal Club was a smaller, close-knit club and I’ve been involved ever since.”
One tremendous benefit of the club is that at almost every meeting there is at least one animal to see and learn about, and depending on the individual critter, pet or play with. The leadership of the club places an emphasis on helping membership maintain a bond with animals, even if they can’t have personal pets at school.
“We try to have an animal at every meeting to offer that outlet to students who might miss their pets at home or can’t have pets because they are in a dorm,” White said.
Cats and dogs are of course popular options, and easy to find, but the club occasionally has exotic birds or animals at meetings. Sometimes these animals are brought by the speaker for that meeting and other times they belong to a member.
While learning and interacting with animals are a strong emphases of the club, service projects are also an important component. Members are required to complete 10 service hours in order to be considered active members, five of which must be with the club. Those activities are all across the spectrum, from physical labor to fundraising.
“We try to do about two service projects a month,” McKean said. “That could be anything from bake sales to raise money to actually going out to farms or other organizations if they need help cleaning up or fundraising.”
“One time, we went to the Carolina Tiger Rescue and were able to tour the facility and help dig out the foundation for a new loading dock,” White said.
White said that while it was fairly tough work, it wasn’t exhausting, and that it was a very rewarding and enjoyable experience.
The semester is winding down for student organizations across NC State’s campus, but the Companion Animal Club does have a final open event before 2016 is over. On Dec. 6, the club will be hosting a “stress-buster” event. Participants can come hang out with members of the club, have snacks and make Christmas ornaments while watching a Christmas movie. The event will be in room 216 in Mann Hall. Interested students should RSVP by Saturday to companionanimalclub@gmail.com.
Anyone considering becoming involved with the club can email the same address, or attend the first meeting of the spring semester on Jan. 18 at 6:30 p.m. in Mann Hall, room 216.
