Over 3 months after the Thurston County Permitting and Land Use Office cited her for having too many dogs in a residence, Sharon Gold, founder of Furever Homes dog rescue, still has more dogs than the County allows.
Thurston County cited Gold last February for violating the County ordinance limiting residents to 3 dogs. In two follow up visits, staff from the Permitting and Land Use office noted that Gold still had more than 3 dogs in her home (which she rents).
According to Thurston County regulations, residences cannot have more than 3 dogs over 4 months of age. Image from Thurston County.
I requested a copy of the Permitting and Land Use Office report after a site visit at Gold’s home. The report noted Gold had 8 dogs on site plus 1 more dog inside with 2 litters totaling 9 puppies.
Here’s the message I received from the staff person who did the site visit:
“On 4.15.2016 I completed a follow up inspection of the property. I observed more than the allowed 3 dogs on the property. I spoke with Ms. Gold (tenant) and she stated that several of the dogs had been placed and 3 more were in the process of placement to leave the property by the middle of May. She understood that a permit was necessary and that she needed more time to re-home the animals and obtain the appropriate permits. There has been progress made toward compliance since the time of the first inspection; therefore, additional time has been provided for voluntary compliance. There was also some confusion about the regulations after she came into the office to speak with management in late March. That confusion has been cleared up and she understood that no additional dogs may be brought to the site.
I will be completing a follow up site inspection in mid-May to determine compliance and progress.”
According to the field notes I obtained, the “confusion” referred to is Gold’s claim that she didn’t realize that the County’s limitation rules included puppies.
The staff person also stated that Gold did not allow him to take any pictures of the dogs.
The field notes also noted that the Permitting and Land Use Office decided to give Gold an extension since Gold made “progress toward compliance.”
Apparently, that didn’t help.
When someone from the Permitting and Lane Use Office did a site visit in May, Gold still had 6 dogs.
But for some reason, she got another extension.
I wonder if anyone from the Permitting and Land Use Office thought it was odd that Gold apparently only found homes for 2 dogs in over a month.
Or that 2-1/2 months after she was first cited, Gold still hadn’t reduced the number dogs at her residence below the legal limit.
Maybe it’s because she’s still importing dogs.
All you have to do is look at the Furever Homes Facebook page to see dozens of new dogs Gold imported to Washington since she was specifically told not to bring in any more dogs.
Here are a some examples:
May 14, 2016 another announcement from Furever Homes saying the group has new puppies even though on April 15.
I don’t understand why Thurston County Permitting and Land Use Office is giving extensions to Gold. After 3 site visits in 3 months their staff saw she had more dogs than the county allows. Furthermore, a quick summary of the Furever Homes Facebook pages would show she’s still getting more dogs.
It’s not like she’s a model citizen:
When The Olympian wrote article about Forever Homes in last summer she had 85 dogs on her residential property. Photo from The Olympian.
- She brought puppies from Mexico into the US illegally.
- She harassed a former member of the Naval Reserve and Coast Guard that fostered puppies for her.
- The veteran she harassed had to get a restraining order against Gold.
- Last summer Thurston County Animal Control found 85 dogs dogs at her house
To the best of my knowledge no one cited her when she had 85 dogs.
Again, I don’t understand why officials have to this point turned a blind eye to Gold’s operation. She’s not only flaunting Thurston County’s dog limit regulations, but Joint Animal Services for Thurston County has a huge file on her that recommends staff should use “caution” when dealing with her and that she’s been “extremely hostile and belligerent to staff.”
I’ll write more about her dealings with Joint Animal Services soon. In the meantime, the Permitting and Land Use office will conduct another site visit this month.
I wonder how many dogs she’ll have this time.
Ignorant to all the issues discussed in the post above, we rescued a puppy from Furever Homes at the Seattle Pet Expo earlier this month. Our conversations with Ms. Gold and her staff were pleasant. We met Ace, a mild-tempered, 6-month terrier/Chihuahua-mix from Mexico, and fell in love with him immediately. Ms. Gold advised that she would mail us his vaccination records.
When we got home and introduced him to our current dog, Ace began limping and favoring his front left leg. He had only been home ten minutes and we already had to take him to urgent care. Turns out Ace’s leg was broken previous and was not treated, allowing it to heal improperly. The leg is two centimeters shorter and X-rays show obvious trauma. I guess our wife and I were so enamored, we didn’t notice this right away (and she held him the remaining time we were at the Expo and on the the ride home). The vet advised that either amputation or surgery is necessary. We emailed Ms. Gold and she was contrite, not knowing of this and offering to assist in anyway she could. We again requested his vaccination paperwork.
We gave her the benefit of the doubt. When we brought Ace home for the second time (this time with a cone and a splinted leg), he could not stop scratching himself, to the point that he was bleeding and rubbing his coat bare in some places. And he had obvious kennel cough. Fast forward to the following morning and we take him to the vet. Ace is actually more around 4-months old, does have kennel cough, and has a skin infection. Otherwise, he’s in good health, all other things considered. We emailed this to Ms. Gold, who was again surprised. We once more requested his vaccination paperwork.
This was a two weeks ago. Ms. Gold has since only partially refunded our adoption fee, and we still don’t have the vaccination records. Ace is doing much better: no more cough and splint. He still scratches aggressively, so his cone remains on. His leg doesn’t seem to bother him, as he plays a lot with our other dog. We are very happy to have in our lives and will move forward with surgery at the advice of the surgeon.
We are disappointed with Furever Homes with their lack of transparency and professionalism regarding our situation. We didn’t know anything about this organization prior and urge that everyone be more diligent than we were when rescuing a pet. We cannot say we regret this whole process, because it brought us Ace and who knows what would’ve happened to him there, but we definitely would have prepared better, financially, for his medical issues and worked with a different organization.
I’m so sorry you had to go through this. I’ve heard so many stories similar to your about Furever Homes. You can read lots of similar stories at https://www.seattledogspot.com/dog-parks/thurston-county-cracks-down-on-forever-homes-dog-rescue/.
Currently WA has no laws that regulate private rescue groups, so many people like Sharon Gold set up shop here, and start selling rescue dogs for $400-$800. They make even more money by not providing the dog with medical treatment, they also don’t vaccinate them.
But despite WA’s weak laws, county officials could have done a lot more to stop Sharon Gold. She has dumped dozens of her dogs at the local shelter, and they have files on her several inches thick. They knew she had 85 dogs last summer and did virtually nothing.
Until WA passes laws regulating private rescues and local officials stop turning a blind eye to their abuse, we’ll continue to hear stories like yours.
Thank you for not giving up on Ace and providing him with the medical treatment he needed. It sounds like he’s in a fantastic home and will have a happy life.
I urge you to file a complaint with the WA Attorney General’s office regarding your experience with Furever Homes. Hopefully it will spur an investigation into their shady practices.
I will send your story to the people that put on the Pet Expos and tell them they shouldn’t allow Furever Homes to attend future events.
Thank you again for speaking out. Give Ace a hug for us.
I am so sorry this happened. I called and called the compliance office notifying them that Ms Gold was still traveling to California and picking up the Mexico dogs and pulling dogs from various shelters but the officer who was handling it is no longer handling the Furever homes/ gold case and the gentleman Robert Manns seemed very uninterested in doing anything that represented following up on the amount of dogs she has. This has been an ongoing fight and in my opinion she will cntinue getting away with this because our public officials seem non interested in doing their jobs. Also animal services seems to never notice any sick or dead animals and gold always knows when inspectors are coming out so dogs are taken off property. This will never end and dogs will continue to die in this woman’s care or by coming in contact with her dirty infested homez