Becky was a friendly foot long snake living in the Kostka dorm room of Chris Deneen ’06 last semester. Fairfield students flocked to Deneen’s room on drunken weekend nights for entertainment from the animal that was born in Queens, New York.
“She was always very relaxed around me and others. I could tell she really loved me,” said Deneen.
Although Becky was entertaining, she was also messy and hard to handle, like most pets are for college students. Deneen’s snake shed skin, had a diarrhea problem and required “pinkies”, which are two-day old immobile baby mice without eyes, for food. She also required attention.
Deneen’s most troublesome time with Becky was when she somehow got into his printer and he had to break it to get her out. Although she was left undiscovered during her stay at Kostka, Becky did not return to Fairfield after Christmas break.
“She was a little too curious of the college life and always wandered around looking for people and things,” said Deneen. “I know a couple of people who lost control of their pets out of sheer drunkenness and never saw them again. Students should definitely not have pets because we get distracted easily with our work and social lives.”
According to the student handbook, students in university housing are not permitted to keep pets, except for fish in a container of no more than 10 gallons. Director of Residence Life and Housing Fran Koerting says housing encounters all sorts of animals every year, including rabbits, cats, dogs, mice, hampsters, guinea pigs, iguanas and parakeets.
If pets are discovered, they are removed from campus immediately and brought to the guilty student’s home or an animal shelter. The student is assigned either community service or an educational sanction and is forced to assume the cost of any health and safety problems or damage.
“The reason behind the policy is not only health related, including that other residents may be allergic and that the animal may possibly be carrying diseases, but also noise related,” said Koerting.
Despite university policy, Fairfield students have quietly maintained a stable of animals across campus. Last year, the next-door neighbor of townhouse resident Jaime Robillard ’04 proved he was not ready for the responsibility of keeping a pet.
Robillard said the iguana that was kept in her neighbor’s closet with a heat lamp was not named because the student was planning on eating it. However strange this may sound, iguanas have been consumed for centuries in Central America and are slowly becoming a culinary delicacy in North America, according to the Christian Science Monitor.
The student luckily gave his iguana up before he ate its chicken tasting meat for dinner. Butchers refused to kill the animal because iguanas are not FDA approved and one of Robillard’s roommates heavily involved with animal rights told the student she would tell security if he did not find a home for his pet. The student’s roommates also refused to allow their friend to cover the kitchen table with plastic wrap for the iguana’s murder and cooking.
Unlike the iguana, Sam the chinchilla lived happily on campus for over a year in the townhouses and apartments. According to his loving owner, he was hard to take care of because he needed as much attention and time to run around as a dog. The owner, who chose to remain anonymous, does not recommend keeping a pet on campus.
“The school is tough with inspections and you can get in a lot of trouble. Also, your roommates will get annoyed,” said Sam’s owner.
But some Fairfield students feel they can easily take on the challenge and responsibility of having pets on campus. Two female townhouse residents have recently welcomed gerbils “Mary Kate and Ashley” from Norwalk’s Pet Co. into their house. The roommates claim to be very experienced with taking care of pets because they both have owned dogs, cats and rabbits while living at home.
“I can see why the university doesn’t want people to have dogs and cats, but little animals in cages seem manageable,” said one co owners of the gerbils, who asked not to be identified.
Before the gerbils’ arrival, the owners asked their housemates for permission to have the pets living in the house. They agreed.
“It was better than our original idea to have a snake or an octopus,” said one owner, whose comment was followed by a shriek of horror from a housemate down the hall.
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