NOS News•
The Groningen animal ambulance has rescued two geese from a house where members of student association Vindicat live. The geese were terrified and had damaged feathers, say ambulance staff RTV North. According to them, the students had purchased the geese for unclear reasons.
The case came to light after the Groningen news site Sikkim a photo had arrived of a student room with a large swastika (in mirror image) on the wall and a goose in front of the window. “Weird scene here in the street,” the sender wrote, according to Sikkom. “Is this some kind of crazy student joke?”
To strengthen
When employees of the animal ambulance saw the photo, they immediately went to the house. They found two farm geese in bad shape, says one of them, Marian Ubels, at RTV Noord. “Goose feathers normally lie on top of each other like roof tiles, so that they stay dry when they are in the water. But that deck was completely broken.”
The geese were taken to the building of the animal ambulance in Groningen. There they can strengthen. They cannot be immediately released into the wild because their plumage is damaged. “They are now, as it were, leaky, not watertight,” explains Ubels.
Suspended
The board of Vindicat says in a statement to be terribly frightened. “Let’s start by saying that we find this behavior extremely shameful and disconcerting. Fortunately, the animals have now been brought to safety.”
The association immediately distances itself from the student house in question, says the board. “We are severing ties with them indefinitely.” For example, the residents of the Vindicat house are suspended and they are no longer allowed to participate in association activities “in a house context”.
The association board says nothing about the swastika on the wall. According to local news site Sikkom, another wall, not visible in the photo, had a Star of David painted on it.
Not the first time
It is not the first time that Vindicat members have been discredited. Earlier, the student corps made the news because a list of names and telephone numbers of female members was circulated, with inappropriate and sexist comments. Disturbances also arose after a party organized by the association during corona time.
Previously, Vindicat had temporarily lost the accreditation of the University of Groningen and the Hanze University of Applied Sciences, due to intimidation during hazing and excessive alcohol consumption.
