The idea of leaving pets at home alone can be pretty stressful for pet lovers who have so much attachment and connection to their animals.
But a pet-friendly hotel at the biggest veterinary hospital in West Africa, KNUST Veterinary Teaching Hospital in Kumasi, is offering relief to pet owners, by providing luxurious relaxation for pets.
The Pet Lodge has luxurious cages or rooms, bathing station, playground and one-stop teaching hospital for the animals.
The facility is changing public perception about how people treat pets whilst promoting animal rights.
“What you spend on them tells how you love them; how you care about them. You wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to them just like that,” says 50-year-old Electrical Engineer, Worlanyo Agotu.
Mr. Agotu, a pet lover has two dogs, an 11-month-old Caucasian Shepherd and a Sprint.
He is not only strongly attached to the dogs but also connected to the two, Max and Akita.
For Mr Worlanyo, pets such as dogs need regular relaxation, just as humans, the reason he sent his dogs to the Dog Hotel at KNUST Veterinary Teaching Hospital.
A dog being groomed at the KNUST Pet Hotel
“Some people do ask why, why do you send the dogs to the hotel? I am okay. Sometimes when I am stressed up, that’s what I do. I travel outside the same way when you are leaving, the feeding aspect; taking care of the dogs when something happens to it, that same way…. To me, it is better you take the dog there.”
So what kind of service is available at the Pet Hotel here at the KNUST Veterinary Teaching Hospital?
The facility boasts of a dog bathing station and playground for dogs, among others.
Dr. Emmanuel Opoku is the Resident Veterinary Medical Officer. “We have pet bathing station, grooming table where dogs are groomed and then we also have pet playing ground.”
The KNUST Veterinary Teaching Hospital also boasts of the admission wards for pets at the hospital even at night and owners are allowed to visit their sick pets at the hospital as has been the case for humans.