Judge’s Order May Put Shelter Back In Business Neighbors Angry About Putting Up With Noise From Dogs

A Stevens County judge has reversed himself and will allow Joyce Tasker to reopen the Dog Patch animal shelter she operates in her semi-rural home. After hearing testimony from a sound engineer, Superior Court Judge Larry Kristianson ruled this week that a new $50,000 sound-baffling dog run eliminates a noise nuisance at Dog Patch.

Kristianson is expected to sign an order making his ruling official within a couple of weeks.

Tasker could not be reached for comment.

Under the proposed order, Tasker would be allowed to keep 48 dogs on condition she take steps to reduce nighttime barking in the outdoor dog run that connects to her house.

She also would be required to build up a berm along the dog run to obstruct the view from a neighbor’s home.

Tasker hasn’t been allowed to have any dogs or signs since Jan. 16, when Kristianson found her nonprofit shelter in violation of a 1996 order limiting her to six dogs.

In March 1996, Kristianson agreed with Tasker’s neighbors - Ray and Betty Hickey, and Dan and Sarah Schwartz - that having a dog pound between their properties was a nuisance.

Tasker and her neighbors live in a suburban-style, four-unit subdivision in a rural area about a dozen miles southwest of Colville. Like most of Stevens County, the area has no zoning.

Tasker dropped an appeal of the 1996 nuisance ruling when Kristianson agreed to consider her efforts to mitigate the nuisance.

Seattle sound expert Ioana Park testified that scientific testing showed Tasker’s new dog run would keep noise within state standards for residential areas. The facility employs large berms, fencing and an open-ended pole building to dampen noise. The Schwartzes and the Hickeys presented anecdotal testimony that Tasker’s mitigation was inadequate, but had no scientific testing of their own to counter Park’s conclusions.

The Hickeys said Tuesday that they had just been notified of Kristianson’s tentative ruling, and hadn’t decided whether to appeal.

Ray and Betty Hickey said they feel “trapped” - unable to move because Tasker’s dog shelter has reduced the value of the home they bought a dozen years before Tasker arrived.

“This so-called sound expert says she can have 48 dogs over there and not hurt anything, but I don’t go along with it,” Betty Hickey said. “Would you like to listen to that many dogs? Nobody in his right mind would.”

She and her husband said they are bitter about Stevens County officials who they believe have shirked their duties - from Kristianson to the sheriff to the county commissioners who allowed shoulder-to-shoulder houses without zoning protection. “The justice system up here in Stevens County stinks because nobody will do their jobs,” Betty Hickey said.

Tasker has complained recently about being reduced to living in her pickup because she can’t take her dogs home.

Tasker also has been highly critical of county officials for failing to provide an animal-control program. She has inundated Sheriff Craig Thayer with stray dogs and cats he is obligated to deal with under state law.

The county has a contract to send dogs to the Colville city pound, but Thayer was forced last summer to begin auctioning off stray cats under a state law geared toward livestock.

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