The Daily Gamecock

Carolina Productions hosts Dogs on Davis

First-year math student Josh Dietrich visited Dogs on Davis Wednesday because he missed his pets from back home.

"I have two at home, I don't have any here," Dietrich said. "It reminds me of home and it's great to just pet them and give them love."

Carolina Productions and Pawmetto Lifeline host Dogs on Davis Field monthly in effort to alleviate student stress by petting dogs. Dogs on Davis originally started out as Walk a Dog Day in 2016 before evolving into Dogs on Davis in spring 2017.

"We rescue all our dogs from the county shelter," Pawmetto Lifeline volunteer Sandie Huelsman said. "The county shelters will put the dogs down, so we rescue them, and once they get to us at Pawmetto, they're safe until they find a home."

Carolina Productions daytime events coordinator Alia Pease said the purpose of Dogs on Davis isn't only to support Pawmetto Lifeline's cause.

"Then we get exposure for our organization and then students, they can just pet dogs on their way to classes or on the way from a stressful event,"  Pease, a fourth-year psychology student, said. 

First-year biochemistry student Serenity Armstrong said she came to the event just because she loved dogs and ended up signing up to volunteer at Pawmetto Lifeline.

"I just really like dogs," Armstrong said. "Everywhere I've lived so far, I have signed up to volunteer at the local animal shelter, and this was just an extension of that."

Huelsman said getting students volunteer opportunities at the shelter was big reason why they partnered with Carolina Productions. 

"You know the nice thing about volunteering at Pawmetto is we're seven days a week and we always need someone to love on the dogs and cats," Huelsman said. 

Pease also said Dogs on Davis was beneficial for helping students manage their stress. 

"I've had students that are like, 'I just failed a test, I need to pet a dog,' and so they come here and pet a dog," Pease said.

First-year chemistry student Shrita Reddy is one of the students that attended for stress relief.

"My best part was Violet the pit bull because I love pit bulls so much," Reddy said. "I was very stressed, and then I came here and everything just kind of like, I kind of just forgot about everything."


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