There is a new trend sweeping (or should I say inhabiting) fraternity houses across the nation. This new trend may squeak, ribbit, meow, or bark but it will be obvious if it has reached a fraternity near you. This new trend is the fraternity pet. For some reason, college-age boys have decided it is a good idea to purchase a poor, unsuspecting animal and give it a new loving (?), caring (?) home in a frat house being raised by a group of drunken, sloppy males. This is clearly a hotly debated topic, so let’s weight some of the pros and cons, shall we?
First of all, we have to examine the motivation behind the actual purchase of a frat mascot. I would assume that boys think it a good idea to have a pet around simply for the cute factor. Everyone knows that all girls are a sucker for some big kitty eyes or puppy snuggles. Boys must think that having a pet around will make girls more likely to want to visit or to see them as having some kind of paternal instinct that there is clearly no chance of them possessing just yet. Or could it be that boys really do miss good old Rosco the golden retriever from home and just want to have a puppy to cuddle with on those cold winter nights? Whatever the motivation, fraternities are now sporting a vast array of animal friends from turtles to bunnies and back.
I’m not going to lie: as a female, having an animal in a frat house definitely has strong appeal. The inspiration for writing this article comes from the fact that the house I was at last night had not one, not two, but THREE baby bunnies. Like how am I supposed to resist that, seriously? I came to maybe mingle, chat, and dance, and stayed to hang out with the bunnies. So I’m not entirely sure the boys were achieving their purpose because I spent more time with their pets than with them, but it definitely kept me there for longer.
That being said, it can be mildly upsetting to think about a poor unsuspecting baby bunny being raised in an environment like a fraternity house. I would assume they eat their fair share of leftover Panda Express and frat boys all over the country are finding out whether turtles and cats alike can survive on a diet exclusively consisting of beer and pizza. I can’t exactly picture an animal being content living in a fraternity house but I guess most of the boys living there aren’t exactly the picture of contentment anyway so I suppose I should just not question it.
However, maybe boys my age do have some degree of paternal instinct after all. All the frat animals I’ve seen are highly featured in snapstories and can be seen all over campus and at every party, getting more love and attention than your average family pet. Maybe frat animals are actually a great idea because they are training boys how to take care of something that isn’t their own personal hygiene and really do provide a snuggle buddy on hard days. So keep an eye out for this new campus trend and make sure to pay a visit whenever the frat has a fluffy little mascot with cute eyes and a wagging tail.
