Appeal Filed To Keep Animal Shelter Open

FOR THE RECORD: March 26, 1996 CORRECTION: Joyce Tasker paid the $250 filing fee in her appeal of a court order closing the animal shelter she operates in her semi-rural Stevens County home. A story Saturday indicated otherwise.

Joyce Tasker is appealing a court order to close the Dog Patch animal shelter she runs in her Colville-area home.

A state Court of Appeals spokeswoman in Spokane said Friday that a hearing was being scheduled to dismiss the appeal for failure to pay the $250 filing fee. The appeal may proceed if Tasker delivers the fee or convinces the court she is unable to pay.

Stevens County Superior Court Judge Larry Kristianson ruled earlier this month that Tasker’s barking dogs are an illegal nuisance for two close neighbors, Raymond and Betty Hickey and Dan and Sarah Schwartz. He gave Tasker until April 7 to get rid of all but two of the two dozen or more dogs she keeps.

Tasker contends the ruling threatens pet ownership and property rights throughout the state.

But the Hickeys and Schwartzes argued successfully that their property rights were abridged. They testified that howling dogs kept them from sleeping and enjoying activities in their yards.

Kristianson found the plaintiffs’ homes are just 100 to 125 feet on either side of Tasker’s house - distances Tasker disputes. The houses are in a four-home subdivision in a rural area 12 miles southwest of Colville.

Stevens County has no zoning laws to keep animal shelters or anything else out of residential areas.

However, plaintiffs’ attorney Chris Montgomery of Colville cited a Supreme Court decision that even properly located businesses can’t unreasonably disturb neighbors.