Cindy Christen, assistant professor of journalism and mass communication, got more than she bargained for when her students conducted a public relations campaign titled “Responsible Pet Ownership.”

Two focus groups were studied: a group of pet owners and a group of non-pet owners. Her students asked the groups questions, videotaped them and analyzed the results.

While dubbing the tapes for the students, Christen found some very shocking footage of people feeding alcohol and drugs to their pets.

After becoming aware of the behavior, Christen found it to be prevalent on campus.

“I have yet to find one student that didn’t have an example of witnessing this sort of thing,” she said. “It appears to be very common.”

Steve Hansen, director for the Animal Poison Control Center, 325 Billy Sunday Road, said the most common reports are incidents in which someone poured alcohol into a bowl and encouraged a dog to drink it.

Christen said there was a person on the tape feeding a friend’s dog enough beer that it was sick for more than one day.

“This person was witnessed doing this by several people on an ongoing basis at parties,” she said.

Her students also said hard drugs are given to dogs at parties as well, usually illegal drugs, Christen said.

Hansen said illegal drugs are commonly reported at the center and tend to be very serious cases. Marijuana is the most common drug taken by animals, he said.

“If a dog finds a bag of marijuana it will eat the whole thing,” Hansen said.

Dogs are very sensitive to marijuana, he said, and it puts them into a profound coma.

Hansen said the center has also dealt with cases where dogs have taken cocaine and methanphetamines. Both of them cause dogs to tremor and go into a seizure. He said it will also cause the dog to go into a very depressed state.

“It can become fatal because they stop breathing during the seizure or when their respiratory system is depressed,” he said.

Although many students witness this behavior, it rarely gets reported. Christen believes this is because students don’t think it’s abuse.

“It could really harm the dog, but they just think it’s funny,” she said.

Lorna Lavender, supervisor for the Ames Animal Shelter, which is part of the Animal Poison Control Center, said this behavior is more harmful than most students believe.

“It’s certainly not funny – it is very dangerous,” she said.

Lavender said because the physiological make-up is so different between dogs and humans, it’s hard to determine what the effect of drugs or alcohol may be.

Hansen said the biggest problem is the body weight of a dog, which is usually much less than a student, so it can only handle a small amount. Also, dogs’ bodies and livers are not metabolized to handle alcohol, so they don’t have a tolerance to it.

Christen said one student even blamed the dog for drinking the beer.

“She said she put it down and it drank it, so it was the dog’s fault,” she said.

If students witness these kinds of activities at a party, they should call the Ames Animal Shelter or the Department of Public Safety. Hansen said the Animal Poison Control Center is available 24 hours a day, with veterinarians on duty to help.

Lavender said the incidents are frustrating for animal welfare advocates and it shows a lack of respect for other living creatures.

“The shelter tries to find responsible homes for these pets and then we have college students feeding them beer,” she said. “It is very disturbing to me; they obviously aren’t mature enough to even be using alcohol.”