Dog rescuer ordered to reduce canine count to three

Police served papers last Wednesday on a woman who has wanted to get permission to run a “dog rescue” operation in her home, telling her instead that she had 90 days to get her dog total down to three dogs.

City officials stated that Dorothy Harris had been sent two registered letters but failed to respond to them. Police were then directed to serve the city notice to Harris to get rid of the dogs she had at her residence on Young Street from an earlier dog rescue operation.

Harris said Monday that she has her rescue dogs down to three after taking two dogs to the Spokane Humane Society and two to the west side of the mountains.

“I am not happy with having to turn my dogs loose before they are ready for adoption,” Harris said. “My heart sunk when I was forced to do this.”

“I own four houses in the city and pay a lot of taxes,” she added.

Harris had gone before the city’s planning commission and then the city council trying to convince officials that her dog operation was good for the city.

It didn’t sit well with city officials, who had repeatedly been faced with making a decision on Harris’ request for a dog rescue operation in a residential area.

Later, Harris said she was restructuring her effort to only provide help and advice for people who didn’t want to care for their dogs any longer.

The council, while agreeing that Harris did provide services the city couldn’t, still strongly maintained that Young Street was not the place for a dog rescue operation.

The council voted to give Harris 90 days to get her dog total down to three. The city further stated that when she got her dog total down to two, she would have to appear before council to get permission to raise it higher than two.

Harris said she has worked successfully with the Spokane Humane Society and over time has taken more than 100 dogs there from the greater Grand Coulee area.