Puppies relieve students who are stressed out: Humane Society provided puppies for event
Humane Society Sydney Bales holds Prince, a Petsmart puppy, while food science junior Natalia Tassoni and animal science junior Nathalia Villela scratch his back during Paws for Stress Relief at The Study on Tuesday, December 9, 2014 in Lexington, Ky. Photo by Adam Pennavaria
December 10, 2014
By Peter Smith
Two tiny dogs in Christmas sweaters from the Lexington Humane Society named Big Daddy and Prince joined a room of more than 100 UK students and pranced around in circles to be adored by the students.
Students were allowed to hold and pet the puppies while a representative from the Humane Society monitored the room. The event focused on allowing students to take a momentary step back from their studies and relieve their stress by playing with the puppies.
The Student Health Advisory Council sponsored the PAWS for Stress Relief event held in The Study above Commons Market on Tuesday.
“This is a pretty big turnout,” said biology junior Andreas Zambos, who manned the SHAC table. “Overall it’s very beneficial for people who are studying, especially during finals week when students are starting to get stressed out.”
The puppies were not the only attraction at the PAWS for Stress Relief event. Tables with representatives from the SHAC passed out t-shirts and stress balls to students who attended.
A dietitian was also on hand to inform students about healthy eating habits to relieve stress and help with finals.
“In all honesty, they are stressful, that is the reality of finals,” said Christian Soares, a psychology neuroscience senior. “My finals are all actually compacted for this Monday of dead week, so dead week isn’t actually dead week for me, I’m already starting to feel the stress.”
PAWS stands for Promoting and Achieving Wellness for Students at UK.
Zambos added that the event was “a good opportunity to express to the students the benefits of UK and having a place to find stress relief.”
