Jacob Roberts
Staff from Indiana Wild holding out snakes for students to hold and pet.
The Indiana Wild Informal Education Company stopped by the Student Health and Activities Center (SHAC) on Thursday, April 3rd from 11 a.m to 1 p.m to introduce their animals to students and staff.
Miniature goats, skunks, tortoises, snakes, toads, kookaburras, armadillos, rabbits, and many others were presented in the SHAC to students and staff to be pet and provide stress-reliving therapy, along with a learning experience about from owning pets to exotic animals.
Beth Wood, one of the main organizers for the event, disclosed some of Indiana Wild’s goals as they go to schools and organizations.
“Most of our message is that it doesn’t matter if you have a cat, dog, parakeet, or goldfish; if you have a pet, it is a lifetime commitment…we celebrate the cultural connection between animals and people especially like story books and video games.”
Wood also went into detail about how they started with animals. Most of them being bought but many being rescues from owners who couldn’t care for them anymore.
“Age-appropriate conservation is another one of our main goals, as well as inspiring people to pick up trash and litter when they go outside to keep our lakes and rivers clean, and to even put up birdhouses, bat-houses or a bird feeder; we kind of done what we set out to do.”
Amelia Mathkour, a student, recalled her experience with the animals as she relived stress between classes.
“I had so much fun with the animals. It was literally the best day of my life. The baby goats cured my depression, and I really enjoyed petting animals that I really would never have seen in my lifetime because they are from different regions of the world.”
The miniature goats were one of the stars of the event as they ran around everyone and made sure they were seen.
This was Indiana Wild’s first time here at Owens, so we can only hope we will see them again next year.