By: Ashton Newton
Entertainment Editor

Homecoming week is here, and while I’m looking forward to all the fun activities planned, I can’t help but be a little upset over the lack of equal species representation in homecoming sports.

There’s powder-puff football and powder-tuff volleyball, but where is the inclusion of our dogs with powder-ruff soccer? Sure, they might just run around and not play, but that’s still adorable.

Even more so, there isn’t even a powder-fluff laser tag for our cats. It’s common knowledge that cats love lasers, so nothing would make them happier than an event full of them. Think about the cats.

Animals of Western brighten our days and make us feel happy, so why do we exclude them from sports that would be both fun for them and adorable for us? It’s unfair for everybody involved. I’ll be the first to tell you that my sweater-wearing cats are very upset about not being involved in this year’s events.

This is just one example of a much larger problem in today’s society; our animals want to be involved. Clothes and costumes for animals are a step in the right direction, but bringing them into our most exciting events should be the standard. Just take the annual Puppy Bowl each year on Superbowl Sunday. That is so far the biggest step forward to animal representation, and Western should try to follow its example.

I know that my cats and dogs and I aren’t the only ones upset about this. Western students with animals must feel the same way. We have the power to change things, along with our animals we need to stand up for equal species representation in homecoming sports, because not only are animals a part of Western, they’re a part of us.

Contact the author at journalentertainment@wou.edu