Two criticize Yelm animal shelter care

By Keri Brenner | The Olympian • Published April 29, 2008

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YELM – When Diana Crimi heard about the 8-month-old shepherd-Lab mix that was going to be put down, she ran to the Yelm Animal Shelter to beg for the dog's life.

"I spent a half-hour with her; she had such a sweet disposition," recalled Crimi, of the skinny and frightened animal she saw in March. "I couldn't walk away knowing she would be dead that night."

After shelter staff gave the dog a few days' reprieve, Crimi, of Roy, adopted her for $55 and eventually placed the animal in a new home on 10 acres in Vancouver.

Alarmed and upset by the experience, Crimi said she spent the next five weeks visiting the shelter, adopting and placing five more dogs at a cost of $330. In addition to living under the threat of being killed after seven to 10 days if no one took them away, the dogs were kept in small pens with no place to run or be outside, she said.

"It's not compassionate," said Laura Patterson, owner of Alpha Pet Supply in Tenino, of the Yelm facility. "We're trying to get these dogs off death row and into loving homes."

Yelm Mayor Ron Harding and Public Works Director Tim Peterson strongly disagree with the women's assessment.

"I not only think we're doing the best we can; I think we're doing a good job," said Harding, who met two weeks ago with Patterson, Crimi, Peterson and Wanda Bittner, of Animal Rescue and Adoption. The latter is a no-kill shelter in Yelm that Bittner, 80, has run for 21 years.

"A city our size has to provide a lot of services," Harding said. "We're just not set up for having a humane society."

He said the dogs were "fed well, sheltered and they're not out in the rain."

Crimi said she has seen dogs that needed veterinary care. City officials say that animals receive care when necessary.

Peterson said he and his staff do a lot of work for the shelter. They frequently go out of their way, for example, to track down and return dogs if owners have installed microchips, collars or filed rabies shot information. "We're really trying to work with them," Peterson said of Crimi and Patterson. "Give us some time for the improvements to kick in."

Harding and Peterson also dispute that the city needs to hire a trained animal control officer — as the women maintain.

"We're animal control — not animal shelter or animal rescue," said Peterson, who runs the shelter. "What small city has animal control training for its officers?"

Since the meeting, Bittner has agreed to take any dogs — except pit bulls — that haven't been adopted within the shelter's time limits. In the past two weeks, one pit bull that was an obviously abused aggressive fighter has been put down, and a retriever is scheduled for euthanasia this week because it bit a person and drew blood, Peterson said.

Peterson said he gives the community adequate notice of found dogs in a regular ad in the weekly newspaper. Crimi and Patterson disagree that the notice is enough, saying that many Yelm residents don't even know the pound exists.

The women want the city to set up a prominent bulletin board with up-to-date photos of the dogs in residence.

Patterson and Crimi have formed several networking volunteer groups to lobby for better conditions.

Says Crimi: "We're on a mission of love — we're not trying to take anyone's jobs; we just want to help."

Keri Brenner covers Thurston County for The Olympian. She can be reached at 360-754-5435 or kbrenner@theolympian.com.