SPOKANE, Wash. – Residents in a rural Spokane County neighborhood are seeking justice after their animals were reportedly killed by dogs escaping from an animal operating illegally.
Carter Marcy, a neighbor, said two dogs that escaped from the property of Rescue4All have killed between 13 to 15 chickens in the area.
“My neighbor said that there were dogs on our property that were killing our animals,” Marcy said. “We allow our animals to free range on the property, but we can’t do anymore because we have lost so many.”
In response, Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Service (SCRAPS) conducted an investigation.
“In that process, we realized that Rescue4All is operating an illegal kennel.” Chris Miller, the operations manager at SCRAPS, said.
He noted that Rescue4All has around 70 dogs on their property, with concerns primarily stemming from a few huskies escaping.
“To my knowledge… I don’t believe they have any permits to be operating in that sort of capacity,” Miller said.
Spokane County zoning code doesn’t list animal shelters as an acceptable use on land zoned for rural conservation, which is what Rescue4All’s lot is zoned for, and it requires conditional use permits to run kennels on such parcels.
Spokane County Building and Zoning confirmed that Rescue4All applied for a conditional use permit only in the last month.
Caitlin Baunsgard, a board member of Rescue4All, acknowledged the situation.
“Rescue4all was never supposed to be this big,” Baunsgard said.
But she argued Rescue4All has been working with SCRAPS since 2018.
“(Executive director Jamie Mcatee) was working with SCRAPS the whole time SCRAPS knew what she was doing,” Baunsgard said.
When asked if SCRAPS allowed organizations like Rescue4All to operate, Miller said, “legally no.”
“Technically folks operate kennels all the time,” Miller said.
Baunsgard claimed that Rescue4All had a verbal agreement with the previous director of SCRAPS, although SCRAPS wouldn’t confirm if that was true.
As for the permit, Baunsgard argued SCRAPS told Mcatee that she didn’t need one.
Despite the concerns, SCRAPS doesn’t plan to shut down the shelter.
“We are at capacity now,” Miller said. And the concerns at Rescue4All revolve around control of the animals, not their welfare.
And while SCRAPS doesn’t plan to close the shelter for now, Rescue4All’s plans for the future mean the point may eventually be moot.
“(We’re) raising money to move to Stevens County,” Baunsgard said.
Marcy, the neighbor whose birds died, supports the rescue’s overarching mission, and wishes things could have gone differently.
“They should have researched and bought elsewhere,” Marcy said.
