RAW gets down, dirty to raise animal awareness

Briscoe Quad was home to more than just students Monday.

Dogs gathered in the quad’s circle drive as students and members of Revitalizing Animal Well-Being gathered beneath the shade to bathe dogs while raising awareness about animal well being and the positive connection animals and humans have.

For Monday’s event, co-founder and co-president Courtney Wennerstrom said the goal was to raise money for the Bloomington Animal Shelter and to raise money and awareness for the groups Eggs-traordinary IU campaign.

Deborah Strickland, who also serves as the co-founder and co-president, explained that the Eggs-traordinary campaign encourages the use of cage-free eggs. The focus is to get Residential Programs and Services to switch to using cage-free eggs, in which chickens are free range, as opposed to using eggs from chickens in battery cages, which are about half the size of an 8.5-by-11 inch piece of paper.

Wennerstrom said the group hopes to have a letter ready on Sept. 9 so people can sign the petition at the Student Involvement Fair.

“Human and animal well-being are intertwined,” Wennerstrom said. RAW’s goal is to remind people of the positive connection animals and humans share.

Wennerstrom’s dogs, Maddie and Kodiac, were the first dogs bathed. Afterward, they lounged out in the shade. More dogs arrived, wagging their tails, unsure of what treat they were in for.

Wennerstrom commented that at last year’s event they had “all these dogs and not enough people. This year we have all these lovely people and not enough dogs,” which is a testament to the group’s growing membership.

More new members arrived to the event to offer their help, support and interest in joining the group.

Junior Riya Ghosal was one of these new members. She said she saw a poster in one of the campus buildings and because she “really really loves animals”, she decided to come out to Monday’s event in hopes of joining.

“I pet random dogs on the street,” Ghosal said, adding that if people love animals and want to help they should join this group. “I love dogs. ... I love every animal.”

Senior Chelsey Mulherin brought her dog Rugby to get bathed. Mulherin recently adopted Rugby from the Bedford Animal Control & Shelter.

“I wanted a chocolate lab, and we were decided to save an animal in need,” she said of her choice to adopt from a shelter instead of going through a pet shop.

One of RAW’s next events is the “Show off your Shelter Dog,” which is their anti-puppy mill campaign hosted in Bryan Park. The event will help raise awareness about the treatment dogs go through in puppy mills, which are breeding facilities that produce purebreed puppies in large numbers.

Sophomore Kathryn Banas, a member of RAW, is a dog owner herself.

“I obviously miss my dog like crazy,” Banas said. She not only joined the group because she loves animals, but because she feels the group does a great job of raising animal awareness.

Since the group’s inception, Wennerstrom said besides the growing membership, the group has also developed some really close connections with the community, the Humane Society and the Deep Roots Animal Sanctuary, among others.

As the only current group on campus catering to animals, Banas said she recommends this group to anyone “if you’re an animal lover or missing your dog.”