It happens every year. Students come to Corvallis for the fall term, and some bring their pets with them. The problem is most housing for students in Corvallis doesn't allow pets.

The result is a “mini-explosion” of rejected animals at the Heartland Humane Society, at 5311 SW Airport PI. In the past two weeks, 10 dogs and 15 cats have been brought in by students who owned pets but lived in housing that didn’t allow them.

“Unfortunately, a lot of times people think that they can go ahead and move in with an animal without the landlord's permission,” said Arria Merrill, education coordinator at Heartland.

“In these two weeks here, and probably for the next three weeks, we’re going to have more animals coming in that are being discovered by landlords," Merrill said.

The pattern is simple. In the fall, people arrive in Corvallis with pets but are forced to give them up right away because of housing rules. Others manage to hide their pets from their landlords, but they are usually discovered in a month or two. They are also forced to give up their pets.

Another pattern is students who come into Heartland to adopt a pet but don’t take the pet home with them once the school year ends and the summer arrives.

“You can pretty much guess that it is the students who are leaving the animals behind,” Merrill said. “Some of them are responsible enough to bring them out here and drop them off— a lot of them aren’t."

Merrill said she is sympathetic to students who feel lonely and need a pet for the school year, but she doesn’t think obtaining a pet and abandoning it at the start of the summer is the answer.

“It has been an ongoing problem through the years," Merrill says. “I hope by doing more education... we can get the word out to students that renting a pet for a year isn’t really what we’re here for."

Last year 3,784 dogs and cats were brought into the Heartland Humane Center. Of those, 2,743 (72 percent) were euthanized. Currently, there are 17 dogs and 44 cats at Heartland.

“It is really frustrating for us to see animals back in the spring," Merrill says. “If they (the students) want to be with animals, there are possibilities for volunteer work out here and possibilities for foster care."

In the foster care program at Heartland, people can care for a dog or cat for a few weeks until the animal is big enough to be adopted. Several guidelines must be followed before being approved, but most are simple— such as being able to buy food for your animal.

Anyone interested in obtaining a pet or getting involved with foster care can contact Lisa Nyman at Heartland between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.