PORT TOWNSEND — County officials are working with a dog owner and his attorney to find a solution that will please neighbors who claim that his canines are being abused and land-use regulations violated.
“We are working on a number of compliance goals that will put the dogs in a more wholesome environment,” Larry Fay, Jefferson County environmental health department director, said Thursday.
The owner of the dogs, J.D. Rook, on Wednesday denied the neighbors’ claims — made Monday at a meeting of Jefferson County commissioners — that the dogs are abused.
“They might not have a concrete pad and they might not have adjustable heating, but neither do I,” Rook said while taking care of about a dozen juvenile dogs he said are Rottweilers and akitas.
Four adult dogs were also on the property, located just south of the Port Townsend city limit in unincorporated Jefferson County.
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The rest of the story appears in the Friday/Saturday Peninsula Daily News Jefferson County edition.