A visit to Liz Grauer’s house means multiple kisses for anyone who walks through the door.
Taking turns, her posse of four boxer and boxer-mix breed dogs (and maybe a couple of her three cats) approach and proffer exuberant slobbery greetings, as Grauer gently admonishes them to allow her guests in.
Grauer, by day the shelter veterinarian at the Humane Society for Southwest Washington, is clearly a devotee of the stocky, short-haired dogs: she spends her off hours and plenty of her own money running Pacific Crest Boxer Rescue from her home.
But her house on Northeast 67th Street is just 10 blocks outside of Vancouver city limits, which means that some day — maybe sooner than later — her neighborhood could be annexed into the city and her rescue work would put her well over the maximum three dogs permitted in Vancouver.
“I would not be able to do rescue,” said Grauer, who like most small operations takes on dogs that need more long-term medical or behavioral work than overstretched shelters can provide.
It’s a predicament she says that dozens of her fellow small rescue groups will face as Vancouver expands.
But on Monday, the Vancouver City Council began the process to change city regulations for rescue groups — to allow up to six adult dogs in a home.
The change won’t be a carte blanche invitation for folks to start amassing dog packs, explained Vancouver Citizen Advocate Richard Landis.
Rather, small rescue groups would have to pass muster with the Humane Society and Clark County Animal Control, earning a special license to house the dogs, he said. The license is expected to cost about $75 a year and the rescued dogs would be expected to be adopted out within six months of arriving in a home, with some exceptions for more-difficult cases.
Through inspection or based on complaints, county Animal Control, which is paid by the city to enforce animal law in Vancouver as well, will ensure neighbors won’t be subjected to barking, smell or any other ill effects of having a group of dogs next door. Those that cause disturbances can have their licenses revoked.
Clark County, which four months ago passed an ordinance allowing animal rescue groups to have up to 14 dogs, has not yet received a complaint, Animal Control Manager Linda Moorehead said.
Grauer, whose pack can swell to as many as nine wayward boxers, has neighbors nearby. But she said she’s never had a complaint. She has a pooper-scooper come twice a week, and she keeps the dogs indoors in crates when she leaves the house, she said.
“I can keep them longer, feed them longer, do a lot more intensive stuff with the dogs” than a shelter can, she explained. “A lot of these rescuers are slightly crazy about that breed and will do what it takes to do right by those dogs.”
For that reason, the Humane Society of Southwest Washington backs the city’s move toward licensing in-home rescue, shelter Executive Director Chuck Tourtillott said.
The Humane Society often sends difficult dogs to small breed-specific groups in Clark County and Portland; doing so has cut dog euthanasia by 48 percent in the last three years, he said.
“We see rescue groups as a tool to help us,” Tourtillott said. “It really does help save lives.”
The city’s Landis said there are likely rescue groups operating within Vancouver limits that do so covertly. “We know it’s taking place; we just want to formalize it in an ordinance,” he said.
Most of the council expressed a strong desire to see the licensing program.
“This has been a long time coming,” said Councilor Pat Jollota, who worked with the county’s Animal Control Advisory Board to craft the proposed ordinance. “We have good people who are doing a good thing, and saving a lot of money, and being penalized.”
Councilor Pat Campbell, however, raised a number of concerns about the ability of owners to keep control of six dogs and also about that many dogs being in a city yard.
“I just think six dogs is really a lot of dogs in an urban environment,” he said. He also said the ordinance should include stipulations for proof of insurance and approval from landlords or neighborhood associations.
Mayor Royce Pollard pointed out that while some yards and neighborhoods might not be a good match for a dog rescue association, the city should support such groups where appropriate.
“There are people who are willing to do good,” he said. “We should move forward with this.”
City staff said they expect to bring the ordinance before the council for a public hearing in December.
