Animal rescue home seeks permit
Old Souls facility to get public hearing Monday in bid to remain open at current site
A rescue organization for aged, special-needs or hospice dogs is seeking a special use permit from Yuma County so it can continue operating out of a home west of Yuma, amassing a global following at the same time neighborhood opposition is growing.
Old Souls K9 Rescue and Retirement Home’s application gets its first public hearing Monday in front of the county Planning and Zoning Commission, which will hear the case for and against the proposal before making a recommendation to the county board of supervisors, which makes the final decision.
The permit request comes after the county received a complaint in June about Old Souls from the daughter of one of the nonprofit’s next-door neighbors, about a shade structure placed too close to their home and their operating a nonprofit kennel out of their home without a permit.
“Which is fine,” said Paula Rivadeneira, who owns and operates the rescue with her husband, Isaac. “Because we want to be in compliance. We didn’t know that we had to have a permit, we actually contacted the county when we moved here to find out if we need a business license or a kennel license or whatever, and they said, no.
“So the deal is, it’s a complaint-driven organization, so unless there’s a complaint they don’t ask for those things. Now that there’s been a complaint, we have to file in order to get this special use permit.” The couple have lived there for three years.
The couple takes in as many elderly or hospice animals as they have room for,
finding foster or adoptive homes for them when possible. The rest live out their days at 11262 S. Holland Ave. with food, veterinary care and plenty of couches and pillows to lie around on, until their health declines to the point that euthanasia is the most humane option.
Rivadeneira said the “Old Souls Hacienda” has a maximum capacity of 18 dogs, which will remain the same under the special use permit as proposed by county planning staff. Their five cats would also be allowed to stay, but the rescue as a rule doesn’t take in elderly or sick cats due to the difficulty of caring for them along with the dogs.
The permit doesn’t mention any other species, but the Rivadeneira’s application says Old Souls also is the home to two horses, four tortoises, three pigs, two rabbits, a small flock of chickens and one rooster. Such animals are allowed, with restrictions, under the home’s low density residential zoning, with minimum lot sizes of 40,000 square feet. Their home is about 2,000 square feet and is located on a 1.2-acre lot.
Other proposed limitations include a maximum of 15 visitors and volunteers per day, no visitors or guests parking in the street, and operating hours of 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays. They would be required to create four parking spaces on their property as well. Planning staff is recommending approval of the permit.
Rivadeneira said the limitations on vehicles and guests would inhibit being able to have groups of volunteers come by to help with maintenance, or visitors such as special-needs students from Gila Ridge High School or veterans recently returned from combat zones.
But after hearing about increased neighborhood opposition, and getting angry phone calls to back that up, she might be willing to take what she can get: “Nothing matters to me other than being able to take care of these old, sick dogs.”
The house immediately to the north of theirs is owned by Alejandro and Maria Soto. Their daughter Alexis Liggett said her parents have owned the house for 24 years, and had animals there for much of that time, until her father received a liver transplant about 10 years ago and could no longer clean up after them.
The Soto family has circulated a petition among the immediate neighborhood and collected at least 18 signatures opposing the Old Souls permit, Liggett said, most of them unaware of the animal rescue’s presence before being told about it.
“We would talk to them and they would say, “Oh my god, that’s where the smells are coming from,” she said.
She said she is a pet lover as well and supports Old Souls’ mission, but feels it should have a bigger property, away from residential areas.
“We are all for a rescue organization, we love the idea,” she said. “The humane society, they operate away from others, it’s definitely not in a residential area. And it’s just dogs and cats. Old Souls, from what I see, rescues all sorts of animals, I’ve heard Saddles of Joy gave them one of the horses that’s older and couldn’t be there any more. I think they have a goat right now, and they have pigs,” she said.
She visits there often with her three-year-old daughter, who has a mosquito allergy, but said they can rarely sit on the porch anymore because of flies and other insects which have been there since Old Souls has been there, showing a photo of a large jug almost half-filled with dead flies she said was in her parents’ yard, next to the Rivadeneiras’ fence.
She said the insects could pose a health threat to her father and other nearby residents with health conditions, and the odors from the Old Souls property have been a nuisance as well.
She said some of the conditions have improved recently, but thinks there are reasons for that. “Fortunately and unfortunately, it’s now that they’re trying to get this permit that they’re cleaning it two or three times a day. That was not the case before,” she said.
Old Souls brings too much traffic to the gravel street, and said she expects it’ll only increase. “They’re a growing organization, it’s just not a place where they can continue to grow, as I know they will, because of the amount of supporters they have in the community, with them,” she said.
At least two residents of the neighborhood have written to the county in support of Old Souls, including Shawna Rodriguez, who lives across the street.
“In general there is no noise, no bad smell, no traffic, and no problems in the neighborhood because of them,” she wrote. “Their dogs stay on the property all the time, I never see any of them running loose in the neighborhood. I have personally been inside their home, so I know their home and their property are clean and well-kept.”
As of Thursday, county staff had received 64 letters from the public supporting the special use permit and one against it, Liggett’s. She said her petition and additional letters would be sent in to the county, and others presented shortly before the meeting.
Rivadeneira said the dogs are usually sleeping instead of barking, and said pet waste and other trash are regularly taken care of, to minimize the impact on their neighbors. The subdivision is surrounded by agricultural fields, so they could be the source of any number of different odors that could be detected in the neighborhood, she said.
Old Souls has a deep well of supporters and volunteers. One has collected just over 135,000 signatures online from across the U.S. and the globe to back the Rivadeneiras’ case before the commission and the board of supervisors.
Chela Landau, a law enforcement officer from the Los Angeles area, met the Rivadeneiras several years ago when the couple took in an old German shepherd, after another rescue organization wasn’t caring for him as promised.
Earlier this year, she drove a nearly hairless 10-year-old dog and a potbellied pig found wandering Hollywood Boulevard from Los Angeles to Old Souls in Yuma, documenting the trip on YouTube. The pig, Hugo, has since been adopted.
She started the Care2 petition earlier this month and was shocked when it went viral and crushed her original goal. “I started it with a goal of like, 1,000 signatures and it went viral, and it struck a nerve, not just in Arizona and not just in Los Angeles but worldwide, we’re getting signatures,” she said.
Support has come from as far away as Uganda, though many signatures are from Arizona, she said. While local opinions should carry more weight, she said, onlookers should play a role as well.
“Certainly,” people knowing what constitutes a good, responsible rescue, I think some kind of outside opinion should matter a little bit to the zoning commission, because they can see that people are watching, and I think this kind of rescue, these are the kind of people any community would be very lucky to have in their midst,” Landau said. “I wish they were my neighbors.”
Support has been coming in from Yuma as well. Kate Cook, a Reiki practitioner who works with patients at Hospice of Yuma, wrote in a letter to the county she has performed her craft on one of the elderly dogs at Old Souls.
“I think that we all have to be honest with ourselves, in that we know in our hearts that what they do, we could not or perhaps would not. I believe we truly need to honor the gift that each of us have to give to the community,” she said.
Humane Society of Yuma Executive Director Annette Lagunas wrote that Old Souls has taken in six elderly animals from the shelter who would have otherwise been euthanized. “Old Souls Rescue is one of many, many partners that we have, however, they are the only local partner that can immediately remove an animal in need.”
But by Friday, Rivadeneira was frustrated and uncertain whether Old Souls would get the permit, given the number of neighbors that appear ready to oppose it. She said they’ve invited all of them to come over and see the place for themselves, but none have done so.
“My message to my neighbors is shame on you, for not coming over here, and actually meeting us and seeing our property, and instead blindly signing a petition opposing us. I think that’s pretty crummy, and as an adult in society you should be making your own decisions,” she said.
But relocating Old Souls is not an option, she added: “We’re gonna live here the rest of our lives, And we want to do it peacefully, and happily, and taking care of our dying animals. And that’s all we want to do. And we hope that they eventually come over, maybe when all this is over.”