Dogs from Furever Homes Rescue Kill Neighbor’s Goats in Olympia

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS DISTURBING CONTENT, PICTURES, AND VIDEO

Last Saturday in Olympia, Jane* and her family left their home to run an errand. They returned 30 minutes later to a “horrific” scene of blood and carnage in their goat pen.

Inside the pen were 4 dogs “covered in their goats’ blood.” After rushing her children into the house so they wouldn’t see the slaughter she discovered that 2 of the goats were already dead and 3 others were “barely hanging on.”

She told me, “You could hear the goats screaming in pain and terror even from inside my house.”

* = All names of people in this post have been changed to protect them from retaliation.

Rogue Dog “Rescue” Has Long History of Causing Chaos

The four dogs that killed the goats escaped from Sharon Gold’s house in Olympia. She’s a neighbor of the goats’ owners.

Sharon Gold owns Furever Homes rescue. Over the last few years she has had dozens of run-ins with Thurston County Police and Joint Animal Services in Lacey because of the haphazard and dangerous way she runs the rescue as well as her refusal to follow local laws/ordinances.

I’ve written about Gold’s antics for several years now. She runs her rescue as a money making enterprise. She doesn’t give a damn about helping dogs. To her, they are disposable commodities she uses to put cash in her pocket.

Here are some examples of how she operates her “rescue”:

From 2010 – 2017 Gold and Furever Homes were the subject of over 100 incident reports/complaints filled with Joint Animal Services in Lacey.

In 2016 she harassed a military family who told me some of the puppies they fostered for her had died due to several medical problems including tapeworm. She hassled the woman who fostered the puppies so much a judge issued a restraining order against her.

In 2017, 18 dogs at Furever Homes died in a kennel fire.

Joint Animal Services banned her from its facility after she and her son threatened to kill an animal control officer.

You can find a links to all my posts about Sharon Gold and Furever Homes at the end of this story.

Olympia Family Returns to Find “Horrific Bloodbath”

Here’s Jane’s account of what happened. I made edits for punctuation and clarity.

“There are 9 houses in my neighborhood and 8 of us have all had more than one run in with Sharon or her son.  In fact, a week or two prior to all this, I took her husky home to her after she was terrorizing my goats. The next day Sharon came down to my house looking for her dogs AGAIN. After leaving my house she got into it with my other neighbor where cops were involved.
 
The day of the tragic events, my family and I left for 30 mins to run to the store. We were not prepared to come back to the horrific scene that was unfolding on our property. From our slider door we could see a dog in our goat pen drinking water. My husband and I instantly ran outside to discover that actually 4 dogs were in our pen.

At that point the dogs were done attacking our goats and acting like nothing had even happened even though they were all covered in our goats’ blood. As we got closer, we could see our littlest goat was dead. I instantly stopped in my tracks and just couldn’t bear to go any further to see who was left.

My husband immediately called 911 because after the events the prior week, we were informed to call the police when her dogs were out and to avoid contact with Sharon. At that point my young kids were coming outside on our patio, so I had to race up there to shield them from the horrific bloodbath while he continued into the goat pen.

Once I got inside, I frantically called my neighbor Jack so he could help my husband. I know there is absolutely no way he understood the words coming out of my mouth because I was sobbing but he dashed out his back door and jumped right in to help.

I quickly learned that another one of the goats was also already dead and that 3 were barely hanging on. You could hear the goats screaming in pain and terror even from inside my house. So I instantly tried to get a hold of the only vet near me that dealt with livestock. Unfortunately it was so late in the day that I could not find anyone to help us while my 3 remaining goats were suffering.

Luckily, we finally found a vet 45 mins to an hour away but was willing to make the trek to help us. From the house I could see one of my goats come out of their house and she was panicking. The whole time the pack of dogs were laying down at the lower part of my goat pen until they saw my goat panic and instantly were ready to attack again.”

But this time my husband, Jack, and another neighbor were down there to protect the remaining goats who could barely move and fend for themselves. The goat who panicked actually ended up collapsing and dying at that moment. That same goat was the same one that was guarding one of my smaller goats inside their house and trying to protect him.

It was clear that it was all a game to these dogs and had nothing to do with them killing to eat. They were just doing it as a vicious attack. Once my dad arrived to help me with the kids, I instantly ran down to help try to save the last 2 remaining goats.

I can’t even express to you how traumatizing it was to see my 3 dead goats just lying there. My goats were more like dogs to me than livestock. They were my babies and very much a part of our family. But I didn’t have time to let emotions overrun me because I had a goat actively trying to die and was screaming for me. We all were doing anything we could possibly think of to help save the remaining 2 goats until the vet could get there.

The first sheriff to arrive on scene wanted to get the owner (Gold) to come get the dogs out of the pen. We declined to allow the owner on our property because there was no way we were going to let her just be able to just take her dogs back like nothing happened. So, they hung out with us while we waited for the vet and allowed us to take the dogs to joint animal services.

Once the vet arrived and assessed the goat that I was mending to I had to make the gut-wrenching decision to have him euthanized because even once sedated he could not calm down and was clearly dying and in so much pain and had lost so much blood. We then began working on the last goat that was in bad shape but had been protected some from my other bigger goat.

During that time the dogs were being loaded up and taken to joint animal services but two of them definitely started acting aggressively to people. Once my last goat got stitched up, we then had to take care of the carnage that was left by these dogs. It was heartbreaking to say the least. Absolutely devastating! My one remaining goat is still fighting for his life and it is still touch and go.

The worst part is he keeps calling out for his herd and you can just see the confusion and sadness in his eyes. My family is hurting. My husband and I can’t even look at the empty goat pen without crying. My kids are beyond sad that they lost their goat friends. 

Unfortunately we know this nightmare isn’t over and Sharon will probably only begin to harass us more as we pursue justice for our lost babies.”

In a follow up email, Jane explained to me how Gold, her family, and their dogs have changed their once peaceful neighborhood to the point that people don’t even feel safe going outside and kids are worried that Gold’s dogs will attack them:

“I have 2 young kids I don’t feel safe having out in front yard in case they get out which is at least once a week. Another neighbor has a disabled son who he worries about being attacked, and we all have dogs that we are worried about coming in contact with her aggressive dogs even though our dogs are on our property.

I know at least one neighbor has been bitten. The people who live right next to her didn’t even feel like they could have an Easter egg hunt because the dogs charge the fence and dig their way out underneath, and they were afraid the kids would get attacked.

You try to confront Sharon and you either get lied to or it turns into a heated situation. She is impossible to deal with and there is never any remorse. And her son is an absolute lose cannon. Once you cross his mom, you become a target to him for getting the bird or threatened.”

Sharon Gold and Her Family Terrorize Neighborhood

Another neighbor wrote this about Sharon Gold:

“Sharon has no remorse and has trained her children, especially her son to follow in her crazy footsteps.  She attacks anyone that questions her and is just a horrible person.  For months the neighbors have been returning her dogs and asking her to get it under control. 

About a week before the goat tragedy, one of our neighbors texted her husband, Justin, a picture of her dog in our back yard and warned of something bad like this happening.  Sharon came down to confront him in an altercation that led to the Sheriff showing up, Sharon making acquisitions that the neighbor threated to kill her and she was scared for her life.  She was so scared that she continued to stand on his property for 30-45 minutes until the sheriff arrived…. 

In that time her son ran down full sprint and confronted this neighbor in his own garage for threatening his mom. We went from living in a peaceful neighborhood to a shit show. 

The police have been her multiple times to handle situations involving them or to serve them.  To say this is a nightmare is an understatement.”

Another neighbor sent me this message:

“It has been nothing but trauma the last few months. The dogs are always getting out (i’m talking 2-3 x week) you can here dogs barking all night. The garage sounds like there are 50 small animals in there. The big ones are kept out back. We have tried to reason, text justin whenever they do get out, he says they are not his. Police have been out twice in the last 10 days.”

Sharon Gold’s inability or unwillingness to control the dogs has turned the lives of the families in the other 8 houses in that neighborhood into a nightmare. Her dogs are killing animals, biting neighbors, and petrifying children.

If anyone dares to try and hold her accountable the damage her dogs cause she screams at them and accuses them of lying. Furthermore, as I noted earlier, she threatened to kill an animal control officer and was served with a restraining order after she harassed someone who fostered puppies for her. And she has never taken any responsibility for the damage her recklessness has caused.

The bottom line is that Gold and her family are terrorizing the other 8 families in that neighborhood.

Thurston County Officials Not Protecting Citizens

Sharon Gold is well-known in both the Thurston County Police Department and Joint Animal Services. They have fielded dozens of complaints and visited her homes multiple times over the last decade. Her dogs have attacked other animals and bitten people. She has repeatedly violated county ordinances regulating how many dogs she can have. She has shown no respect for law enforcement, animal control, or her neighbors.

So why is she still raking in the cash selling dogs and ignoring local ordinances?

Why haven’t Thurston County officials held her accountable for terrorizing her neighbors and running an illegal business out of her home? It’s not clear if she’s continuing to run the “rescue” as Furever Homes or under a new name, but regardless, what she’s doing is ruining this neighborhood.

Why aren’t they concerned that they have constituents that are too scared to go outside in their own neighborhood?

And why haven’t elected officials taken measures to shut down this illegal, out of control rescue?

I plan to monitor what actions the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office, Joint Animal Services, and the Thurston County City Council do/don’t take to address to horrible, untenable situation.

Here are links to the articles I’ve written about Sharon Gold and Furever Homes rescue.

Adopt-a-Pet Boots Furever Homes Rescue from Its Website (August 2018)

Furever Homes Founder Banned from Joint Animal Services After Threats Against Staff (March 2017)

Furever Homes Dog Rescue Continued to Lose Dogs in 2016 (February 2017)

Candlelight Vigil to Be Held in Olympia Sunday for 18 Dogs That Died in Furever Homes Rescue Fire (January 2017)

Fire Kills 18 Dogs at Furever Homes Dog Rescue Near Tumwater (January 2017)

Vigil in Olympia Remembers 18 Dogs That Died in Fire at Illegal Dog Kennel (January 2017)

Furever Homes Dog Rescue: 100+ cases with Thurston County Animal Control since 2010 (July 2017)

After 3+ months, Furever Homes Dog Rescue Still Has Too Many Dogs (June 2016)

Judge Issues Restraining Order Against Furever Homes Rescue Director Sharon Gold (March 2016)

Furever Homes Rescue Makes Military Family’s Fostering Experience a Nightmare (February 2016)

Furever Homes Rescue is Operating in Violation of Thurston County Codes (February 2016)

Furever Homes Rescue Illegally Brought Puppies from Mexico into Washington (February 2016)