Galway Students Vote to Ban Pet Farms

The students union council at University College Galway passed a motion in favour of banning pet farms on campus.

Galway University has had a live pet farm on its campus for over a number of years. The members of the University of Galway Vegan Society were especially concerned by this and pushed for and won a vote for an indefinite ban on organising live animal pet farms on their campus by the student union. The motion was put forward to the student union council on 30th January this year and passed by 53%. Jenna, the society’s auditor told us that the pet farm had been explained as being hosted around exam times for students to use the animals as a form of stress relief. That the farm would run for an entire day and animals would be handled and petted regularly throughout the day. Jenna said they were shaking at the sight of young animals being used in this way. The animals were transported to the university campus and back to the pet farm business location on the the days of its operation. Jenna said the student union paid for the pet farm to be on campus and they now hope that this money will be used to pay for alternative stress relief options for students around exam times such as yoga, meditation and art and tea sessions. The UG Vegan Society promotes veganism within the college campus and is a welcome friendly space for anyone interested. They organise regular events like potlucks, charity bakes and documentary screenings. Jenna recently spoke about the society’s work with the Plant based Universities campaign to make catering on campuses plant based and vegan.