University of Verona allows employees to bring their pets to work after lockdown

by Michael Broad · June 22, 2020

I don’t have the full story of this because of various reasons but it caught my eye as something that was incredibly gentle and sensitive to cat and dog welfare but also impractical.

University of Verona. I looks like a great place for “pets”. Photo: the university.

In Italy they have ended their lockdown. The University of Verona, in the north of the country, decided that as cats and dogs have spent an exceptional amount of time with their human companions over the 3 months of lockdown it would be unfair on the animals to suddenly remove their caretakers from their lives. So employees can bring them to work for a while. I don’t know for how long this policy will last. And I doubt whether it will work.

If every employee brings their cats and dogs to work it certainly won’t work. It sounds as if it would be mayhem. Perhaps I am missing some important details. It is a very sensitive policy, however. Nowadays it is more or less accepted that “pets” (which usually means dogs only for practical reasons) boosts productivity at work.

Despite that acceptance very few businesses allow it on a permanent basis. The difficulties are with practical issues like pooping and peeing and the general husbandry of the animals. Who is going to do it? There are ramifications. The impracticalities are magnified for domestic cats simply because they are less domesticated to put it bluntly. They won’t stay put and behave.

This is not say that some cats wouldn’t be just fine. They would have the right character and age. But mixing a lot of cats and dogs at work just does not make sense. I am sure that I have missed something important about this policy change which must be temporary.