Dogs representing some of the breeds and mixes available for adoption look out from one of the kennels at Pima Animal Care. The dog at lower left was adopted after this picture was taken. The dog at far right was sent to a rescue group. The fate of the other two was unknown.

greg bryan / arizona daily star

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Just when it gets too hot to touch the steering wheel, many college students will be heading out, for home or to start a career or maybe an internship.

Unfortunately, many of those students will leave behind pets, essentially kicking them to the curb with their unwanted couches, stereos and TVs.

This rite of passage, so to speak, happens with the close of each semester.

As final exams week begins, Tucson's two major animal shelters, Pima Animal Care Center and the Humane Society of Southern Arizona, are bracing for their busy season.

Not only will students be ditching their dogs and cats, but litters will be maturing and families will be moving.

This year a group of university staff members, animal activists and even politicians are pushing the University of Arizona to do something to stem student pet abandonment.

They have petitioned UA President Robert Shelton to start a program, implored surrounding neighborhoods to lobby the UA, and approached student groups that might be interested in tackling the issue.

"When you have a major university or a major college, you are going to have a pet abandonment problem," said Mike Tully, an animal advocate and media specialist with the UA's College of Education, who has led the charge.

Angie Garinis, who is pursuing her doctorate with the department of speech language and hearing sciences, said she knows firsthand about the problem.

Her cat, Kosta, was a castaway. And when Garinis was an undergraduate at Northern Illinois University, she said many students ditched their pets.

"They just threw them out. It was terrible," she said.

The UA's response has been lukewarm.

School officials are interested in helping raise awareness about pet abandonment and backing some type of education campaign. But they also say there is no definitive evidence students are a major source of the problem.

"It's not just a university issue, unfortunately," said Jaime Gutierrez, the university's assistant vice president for community relations. "Before the UA can do anything, we need to find out how extensive the problem is."

Recent statistics from the county's Animal Care Center show dog impounds from the city, where many students live, spike dramatically over the summer months.

In May 2006, just over 600 dogs landed at the center. The number jumped to more than 700 in June and July before leveling back off at around 600 toward the end of summer, around when school started back up. The numbers spiked again in mid-December, at the end of the term.

Meanwhile, in unincorporated Pima County, where fewer students live, dog impounds actually dropped from about 600 to 500 over the summer.

Vicki Ann Duraine, Animal Care Center supervisor, said she isn't ready to place the weight of pet abandonment solely on students' shoulders.

"Summers are bad, and springs are bad," she said. "Basically, irresponsible pet ownership is not confined to college kids."

Similarly, Jenny Rose, a spokeswoman for the Humane Society of Southern Arizona, said the shelter takes more animals in during the summer, but it's impossible to say how many of the pets come from students. "It's really hard to track."

"That being said, we definitely see a spike, and we see an increase in the number of animals after each semester ends," she said.

Both shelters support Tully's efforts.

The anecdotal evidence and personal experience are enough for most pet activists to be outraged, or depressed.

"Amongst the debris, they leave their animals. It's a shame," said Pima County Supervisor Ray Carroll, who has written to the UA about the issue but said he has gotten no response. "You don't have to be a dog lover to have some compassion for these little things that are left to fend for themselves."

Dot Jones, program manager for the Animal Welfare Alliance of Southern Arizona's burgeoning Spay Neuter Intervention Project, said she has taken in 12 cats she's found abandoned in the Sam Hughes neighborhood where she lives.

"It was always at Christmas time, spring break or summer," she said. "So, I know they were animals belonging to students."

Jones said she views the problem as good intentions gone bad.

"The students don't intend to abandon their animals," she said. "But I think one of the things people have to think about is, yeah, Fluffy is really cute now, but three years from now when he goes to the Humane Society he's just going to be another dog."

On the UA campus Thursday, awareness about the issue was spotty.

Amy Lustro and Zac Finger, sophomore art students who have a cat named Emma, said they hadn't heard of student pet abandonment.

"I can imagine it, though," Finger said.

The two said they hadn't really discussed what they would do with their cat if they moved away or something came up — but abandonment was not an option.

"We would probably take her with us," Lustro said. "We would never put her on the side of the road."

Tully, the UA staff member who has been pushing for more pet-abandonment awareness, said he would like to see the university set up some type of educational campaign.

Ideally, he said, educational materials would be handed out at the start of the school year.

Further, he'd like to see the UA host a Web site that would not only educate, but include some a database for pets needing temporary homes, or homes willing to take pets over the summer. A network of short-term foster homes could be created to serve the student body, he said.

He has already made a mock Web site when he envisions a student running as a part-time job some day. These are simple ideas, but so far, no one has run with them.

Tully said he thought once he got things rolling the idea would catch on in the campus community and, "the student body would see the value of such a program and take it on. But that was naive on my part, because three years into the project we have barely taken a baby step."

• The Animal Welfare Alliance of Southern Arizona has a Web site with links to 13 animal welfare groups targeting pet abandonment at www.awasa.org/uacampus.html.

• Pima Animal Care Center Phone: 243-5900 Web site: www.pimaanimalcare.org

• Humane Society of Southern Arizona Phone: 327-6088 Web site:www.hssaz.org