Campus sees abandoned pets spike due to break

As the Spring Festival approaches, college students nationwide are eager to leave the worries of classwork behind them. In Wuhan, Hubei Province, they are leaving behind more than stress, with many students abandoning pets they cannot bring back home.

Zou Yunqian, a student at Wuhan-based Huazhong Agricultural University, adopted three injured dogs abandoned on campus last week, and he is taking good care of them, the Chutian Metropolis Daily reported Thursday.

As Zou plans to go home for the Spring Festival, he is worried about the animals. Having them kenneled with a local pet store is too expensive for him, and he doesn't know what to do with these little poor dogs.

Zou is the leader of the school's veterinary science association. Since last semester, he has helped save many animals all over campus together with other students.

"Many volunteers have animal medicine training. But voluntary activities are temporary and not officially organized," Zou was quoted by the Chutian Metropolis Daily as saying.

Recently, the group applied for approval to establish an animal aid clinic on campus, but the school rejected the proposal, saying it was impractical.

Du Fan, the head of Wuhan Homeless Pet Aid Station, said that more than 300 college students have recently contacted the clinic hoping to have their pets cared for during the break.

"Some students have even threatened to abandon their pets if we didn't adopt them, which is upsetting," said Du.

Du provided statistics showing that 80 percent of the abandoned pets the aid station takes in come from local universities. He added that on their own, pets can easily be injured.