Pause for Paws is an organization whose mission it is to further animal rights and welfare in the community. SPECIAL TO THE ORACLE

For the students passionate about bettering the lives of their four-legged furry friends, there is a club open for new members.

Pause for Paws is an organization whose mission it is to further animal rights and welfare in the community. Created in the fall of 2014, Pause for Paws spreads their mission through volunteering at places such as the Humane Society.

“Pause for Paws was initially created to be a link between the Humane Society of Tampa Bay and USF students,” Grace Hussain, a sophomore majoring in sociology and president of Pause for Paws, said. “Since its inception, the organization has developed relationships with a variety of other rescues.”

The club has tabled at Bull Market, invited people such as researchers and local non-profit founders to speak and volunteers with organizations such as the Humane Society and We Care for Paws. Hussain hopes she can inspire the other members in the club to volunteer even more and spread their knowledge to those who may not know about animal rights and animal abuse.

Currently, the club does not have events geared towards raising money – although they hope to change that once they can get more students to join. They are holding their first general board meeting of the spring semester this Today evening.

At the meeting, interested students will be able to sign up to become a member. They even get to put their name down as a choice for an executive position, as the organization has upcoming elections. The club also allows students to leave their suggestions of what they’d like to see in later meetings. This is all in hopes of expanding their presence in the USF community.

As of right now, the club focuses solely on dogs, but they hope to broaden their focus in the future.

“Our club is rather new. At our inception, we decided to focus on dogs in order to keep a more streamlined approach to our organization and build,” Hussain said. “As time has passed, we hope to expand to animals outside of dogs.”

The president, vice president and secretary all have their own furry friends. Both Hussain and the vice president have rescues, named Allie and Bentley respectively, while the secretary’s dog’s name is Jack. These members – and the others with no pets – are passionate about the well-being of the dog community. Even their name represents their passion.

“Our name is Pause for Paws in order to encourage people to do just that: take a moment to pause and consider animals more thoroughly than they have before,” Hussain said. “Consider how they can help them and the impacts which their actions have on them.”

Students interested in the club can learn more at their first general board meeting held in MSC 2706 on Today at 7 pm. Free food will be available.