But I'm sure it fed many people at the restaurant

When students can't make their minds up.

We finished yesterday's story with the stupid dog getting itself drowned. It seems that Professor Purple's students were less inclined to be charitable about the dog after the first occasion. But the next day one of them reads out a statement that the prof. flouted his fundamental duty to save the life of a sentient being.

Sentient? It's a dog and a very stupid dog at that. It seems that Professor Purple is going to be damned for having done and done not. He rescues the dog – they complain; he doesn't rescue the dog – they complain. I must admit that this is the sort of irrational response I'd expect from the more hysterical members of the student body.

Anyway, the result of all the whining is a bunch of protests. What did the professor miss?

Well, prof., you should've done what I suggested yesterday. By removing the dog to a place where it either couldn't get into trouble or to a place where it'd become someone else's problem, you would've saved yourself a lot of trouble. As far as I'm concerned, under the circumstances, you never had any obligation to some random dog in the first place because you're not responsible for it. Would your students have taken care of it? Probably not because they won't be allowed pets in their accommodation. So now they're being hypocrites, demanding that you should've done something, even although they're the only ones who are concerned.

But you've been in academia long enough to know that students are inconsistent and irrational.