Worcester College has recently voted in favour of a motion to make a Russian dwarf pet hamster, named Luka, an honorary member of their JCR.
The motion was passed with thirty-four votes in favour and six against and was proposed by second year student and owner of Luka the hamster, Angus Barry.
Barry explained his reasons for proposing the motion, telling Cherwell, “As soon as I brought Luka back to Worcester I had a steady stream of people coming to visit him and before Facebook took down his profile (which Luka still maintains is the fault of an ‘evil bourgeoisie of cats’) he had 123 facebook friends, many of whom were Worcester students.
“I thought it was silly for him to be such a large part of college life and not be an official part of it. So I had a look through our JCR constitution and found a clause which allowed non humans to become honorary members.”
The motion read, ‘This JCR notes that: Hamsters are incredibly cute’ and that ‘Adopting a hamster would therefore be beneficial to the happiness and general well-being of the members of the JCR.’
It continued, ‘Angus Barry, member of the JCR, is in possession of a young Russian Dwarf hamster (called Luka) that is in need of adoption. Luka is already well loved by many JCR members’ and noted that, ‘Luka’s personality fits well with the spirit of the College. He is adventurous, enjoys cuddles and likes grapes’.
Luka’s personal hero is Abrahamster Lincoln and he enjoys moving cotton wool around his house, scratching his nose and going on adventures
As an honorary member, Luka will not be able to run for election but there is nothing to prevent him from attending and voting in JCR meetings, although Barry explained that, “he often has difficulty following proceedings as English is his third language after Hamster and Russian.”
Luka plans on continuing to make the college happy through his cute appearance and hopes to propose a motion demanding hamster-sized portions in Formal Hall.
