The Oval at Pittsburg State University hosts events year-around, but few include bringing dogs or flowerpot painting like Paws and Petals. Hispanics of Today, or HOT, organized an event in conjunction with the Southeast Kansas Humane Society, also known as SEK Humane Society, to raise money for the local organization.
Not only were there ways to donate monetarily, but the other way you could donate was to bring a leash. On one table there were ways to learn, get involved, and donate the leashes. At this information table, you could learn more about the Check Out a Dog Program.
The Check Out a Dog Program was the main thing that SEK Humane Society and HOT wanted to bring attention to with this event. The program allows people with either a valid driver’s license or over 18 years old to “check out” a dog for a few hours to go out and get a pup cup, go for a walk, etc. This is to give people an opportunity to spoil a dog for a little while and act as enrichment for the dogs in the process.
The President of HOT, Joanna Rivera Ramos is a junior construction engineering major double minoring in business and Spanish. She suggested collaborating on the event so that people at Pitt State who miss having a dog around but cannot have one in the dorms with them were made aware of the program to better the lives of the animals and the people all at the same time. Considering finals are just around the corner, they timed the event so people “could get that energy out before finals… so [they] brought flowerpots out so people could take their minds off of exams for a little bit of a mental break,” according to Ramos.
At the table set up the SEK Humane Society, there was a binder with information on not just the two dogs who were there at the event, but several others and a few cats mixed in as well. It contained some information about their personalities, likes, dislikes, and mentioned if they had a medical condition like diabetes. Aside from this, there were people staffing the table to answer questions about fostering, the Check Out a Dog program, or anything else related to the Humane Society people had questions about.
Of the tables set up for painting flowerpots, all but a few of the seats were taken for a majority of the event. As participants painted their flowerpots, there was music, games, drinks, and dogs setting a comfortable atmosphere. A member of HOT and a sophomore studying biology, Bella Santesteban attended the event to advocate for HOT and SEK Humane Society. She had previously volunteered at SEK Humane Society and had done the Check Out a Dog program before, so she had wanted to see some of the dogs she had seen before while there too. “It was so cute to see all the dogs, and I am glad that SEK Humane Society is partnering with Hispanics of Today to be able to get more donations and funding… and it’s awesome to see people who aren’t even in HOT just coming to hang out and socialize,” Santesteban said.
Jasmine Kyle is the Director of the SEK Human Society and had a few things she wanted to bring awareness to while at the event. One of the dogs there was named Sett. This dog is a boxer/pitbull mix. In the city of Pittsburg, it is illegal to own, house, or shelter a pitbull or pitbull mix at all, even if the dog is only 1% pitbull. This is due to a Breed Specific Law that has been in place since the 1980s.
Unfortunately, according to Kyle, a lot of the dogs taken in by SEK Humane Society are pitbull mixes. “It’s one of the top breeds in this area,” but cannot be adopted out to anyone in Pittsburg, despite what any of their behavioral assessment results may say about an animal’s disposition. This leads to a lot of full kennels with not much room to take in any new animals.
Events like this were not only to encourage people to take these dogs out to a park to take a walk, or paint a flowerpot, but also to bring awareness to foster programs and some of the bigger problems of Pittsburg. The event was not only a way to bring some joy to people before finals but also advocate for those who do not have a voice.