By Joe Smillie
Peninsula Daily News
FORKS –– Residents expressed support for Steve Markwell’s Olympic Animal Sanctuary as a group of critics staged a protest against the facility.
Markwell’s sanctuary, where he houses dangerous dogs who have been condemned by judicial review to death, has come under heavy criticism over the past several months by critics who say he is neglecting and abusing the animals.
Markwell says he is doing nothing wrong and is working with dogs “you’d rather see dead.”
Eighteen people marched through Forks on Thursday night to a gathering with a law enforcement panel in an Internet-coordinated protest.
On a Facebook page promoting the protest, 702 had registered as saying they would attend.
“Steve Markwell has told you that he has many more animals than he can care for,” Laura Mundy, one of the protest organizers, told city officials.
“We’re wondering what you’re doing to alleviate the situation.”
Officials repeated their refrain that the city’s laws do not allow them to investigate or prosecute Markwell.
“We do not have grounds to go in and charge him with any teeth,” Mayor Bryon Monohon said.
Go home
Some residents of Forks, meanwhile, chastised the protesters for intervening in what they said is a local issue.
“Leave Steve alone; take your butts back home,” Heather Wilcox yelled at protesters as they marched with a police escort along a 1½-mile route between Tillicum Park and the Elks Lodge, 941 Merchants Road, the setting for a community dinner and forum on crime in the community.
The panel for the forum included Clallam County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Mark Nichols, Forks Police Administrator Rick Bart, Monohon, Clallam County Sheriff Bill Benedict and Clallam County Undersheriff Ron Peregrin.
Inside the lodge
Bart invited the protesters into the Elks Club to share the six-turkey dinner, but they declined.
“We’re not here to have a turkey dinner,” Mundy said. “We’re here to ask some serious questions.”
Protesters remained outside holding signs, chanting and showing on a 4-foot screen pictures they said were taken by Forks police during an October 2012 investigation of the sanctuary, while some 120 people inside ate dinner.
Inside the lodge, some people castigated the protesters.
“You people spread rumors and come into town and stir things up and bring in the TV cameras without knowing what’s going on,” Joe Wright said.
“I think you people really need to back down a bit.”
As the protesters walked past Sully’s Drive-In on Spartan Avenue, a line of six cars honked horns, and those inside yelled “go home” at the protesters.
The shelter
Markwell told the
Peninsula Daily News last month that he has 128 dogs in his shelter, a 4,000-square-foot warehouse at 1021 Russell Road.
Markwell opened Olympic Animal Sanctuary in 2006 as a home for dogs that have been deemed too deadly to be pets.
His sanctuary’s motto: “We save dogs you’d rather see dead.”
A campaign led by former volunteers has called for Markwell’s facility to be shut down and to have other shelter organizations take the dogs in.
They submitted an Internet petition signed by hundreds in June. Many call local law officials daily for action.
Nichols, the prosecutor, said he gets as many as 20 emails a day from Markwell’s critics around the globe asking him to shut the facility down.
Markwell said he worries that other organizations will kill the dogs.
He does not believe the dogs should be killed because their disorders are caused by their previous owners.
He told the PDN that he views his shelter as “taking on the responsibilities of others,” comparing the dogs with criminals in prison.
Police investigation
Forks police investigated Markwell for animal cruelty charges in October last year.
A citation for second-degree animal cruelty was written but never issued, as city officials declined to press the charges.
Forks Police Chief Bart was asked whether he believes dogs inside the facility are being mistreated.
“Do I right now? I don’t know,” he said. “But we’ll resolve this soon. That’s my hope.”
The protesters asked why no officials have gone inside to investigate the shelter, saying Markwell’s reluctance to let anyone inside is evidence he is mistreating the animals.
They cited pictures said to be taken by a former volunteer as showing the animals are not receiving proper care.
“Seeing water buckets full of straw,” Maggie McDowell said to the panel.
“Ma’am, your definition of what you would like to see and what the law allows and what somebody else may agree do not match at this given moment,” Monohon replied.
Markwell did allow the PDN inside his warehouse to take photographs in late September.
The dogs all had bowls for water and kibble bowls that are filled regularly with food to last the dogs a “couple days,” Markwell said.
Most lived in straw-lined 5-foot-by-5-foot kennels — some in pairs, some solo — though some of the more wild dogs lived in crates Markwell said they preferred because of the close quarters.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Joe Smillie can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or at jsmillie@peninsuladailynews.com.