Despite the College's no-dog policy, Malick was unable to leave Chelsea at home because she was "a one-man animal," as he explained. Soon, however, town dogs began to flock around Coolidge Dormitory, where Malick lived, and would fight amongst each other as they waited for Chelsea to emerge. When the dogs began to attack people, students sent a petition to Dean of Students Robert Ward demanding Chelsea's removal.
Ward presented Malick with three options: to leave the dog at home, to find someone to house her off campus or to move off campus himself. Malick chose the last option. He made sure, however, to praise Ward's handling of the situation, describing Ward as "wonderful" and as a man who would "give anything to anybody."
In explaining the situation, Ward stated that "there was indeed a problem between college and non-college dogs" and that "the problem of dogs had gotten worse over the last three years." He had taken it upon himself to try to cut down on the number of dogs on campus not only because of complaints from the students, but also because several college employees had been threatening to quit.
When asked about the presence of cats on campus, Ward noted that although cats did not present the same problem as dogs, they presented "appalling sanitation problems."
Part of the difficulty that Ward ran into in his attempt to rid the campus of illegal dogs was that Campus Police found it nearly impossible to differentiate between college dogs and town dogs by sight alone. In addition, the College was unable to call town police to retrieve the dogs, as the town of Amherst expected the College "to handle [their own] problems," according to The Student.