On Monday, February 6, the Andrews University Pre-Vet club (@auprevet on Instagram) held a fundraiser and raffle at the campus center. The proceeds were for veterinary efforts to spay and neuter stray cats on the Andrews campus.
Brook Garlock (senior, animal science), president of the Pre-Vet club, explained the story behind the fundraiser: “Recently, our club found a few stray cats around campus that we took in and took care of. We brought them to the clinic and got them neutered to try and keep the stray cat population on campus down. There are actually quite a few stray cats down at the barn…down at the agriculture center. There’s a nice community lady who comes in and feeds them, but they don’t really belong to anyone.”
The cats were neutered at Two by Two Animal Hospital, located in the Berrien Springs community. And more cats are showing up around campus.
“A week before Thanksgiving, we found two kittens outside our department, just outside in the snow by themselves,” says Brook. “We took them in and got them neutered, but we needed to pay for the neutering, so we decided to have a fundraiser to pay for their procedures…we actually adopted those two out…to [people] in the community. The extra proceeds will go to further that…if we get a report of any other stray cats on campus, we’ll try to get them spayed or neutered, and then release them again.”
The club set up two tables in the hallway between the Gazebo and the Terrace Cafe, colorful tablecloths covered in cookies, cat and dog stickers, and a raffle sign-up sheet. Students milling around the campus center stopped by the booth to learn about the fundraiser’s origins, purchase the club’s various goodies.
“All the officers got together on Saturday night, and we spent a few bonding hours [making] the cat-shaped cookies,” explains Brook, when asked how the cookies were made. “We’ve had a lot of people donate towards the event—the cookie ingredients were donated to us by one of the officers’ moms, [and] our receptionist from our department donated the stickers for us. They’re amazing, they’re so cute. And if you donate two dollars, you enter a raffle, and you get to win a [cat] Squishmallow. So it’s just an extra fun thing.”
Nobody is quite sure where the cats are coming from, but the Pre-Vet Club would like to ensure that all the cats are well taken care of. “We probably wouldn't be able to adopt out every single cat on campus that was a stray,” says Brook, “but we would at least get them spayed or neutered, and make sure they didn’t have any contagious diseases that could spread to other cats.”
Brook says that the event was coordinated by fellow officer Jessica Bowen (year, major), who works at the Two by Two clinic. Dr. Schaefer, the owner of the hospital, got the procedures done for the cats. Right now, the Pre-Vet Club is aiming to raise ___ dollars towards this cause. Be on the lookout for the cats of Andrews University!
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.