Animal rescue home seeks new site
Old Souls owners pay fine, look to also house recovering addicts at future location
The owners of Old Souls Animal Rescue and Retirement Home were ordered Thursday to pay a $50 fine to Yuma County for one violation of its zoning ordinance by having too many dogs on their property, and are partnering with another nonprofit as they look for a new home for the animal rescue.
The brief hearing in front of Zoning Hearing Officer Jerry Cook closed out a case that began this summer with a complaint from the family of a next-door neighbor to the rescue group, which takes in elderly and sick dogs without a home, adopting and fostering them out when possible.
Cook reduced the original $100 fine he had levied at an earlier hearing because the shade structure had been moved shortly after the county’s original complaint, but rebuffed a request from owners Paula and Isaac Rivadeneira to waive the remaining penalty.
“We did not get the permit, and we are asking that you waive the fee in light of the $750 we spent in the effort to get it approved; we were hoping you would waive the fine,” Paula Rivadeneira said.
Cook said he couldn’t do that because they are still over the limit with 10 dogs at their home, and the couple paid the fine to the county shortly after the hearing.
While investigating the original complaint, officials found two zoning violations at the Rivadeneiras’ home at 11262 S. Holland Ave.: their 18 dogs were over the limit of five permitted under their zoning, and a shade structure had been placed too close to their property line.
This led to their applying separately to the county for a special use permit to operate a kennel on their property, which failed at the Yuma County Board of Supervisors in November after it faced stiff opposition from within its subdivision, despite strong support elsewhere in the community and an online petition that got more than 300,000 signers from around the world.
The board’s 3-2 vote was in Old Souls’ favor but not enough
to override a requirement for four votes, triggered by the number of immediate neighbors who had come out against it. Many said they supported the nonprofit’s mission, but insisted the operation brought traffic and noise and wasn’t compatible with the residential area.
Alexis Liggett, daughter of the next-door neighbor whose family made the initial complaint against Old Souls, said Thursday she hadn’t seen the ruling and could not comment on it.After the hearing, Paula Rivadeneira said their current house is on the market and Old Souls is fundraising and scouting for new locations in other parts of Yuma County, likely a more rural area where any neighbors would be supportive as Old Souls meets the county’s requirements.
As of Thursday afternoon, just over $7,000 had been raised toward an $80,000 goal set for their campaign on the YouCaring crowdfunding website, and a fundraising event is set for noon to 4 p.m. Saturday at Hope House, 770 W. 7th St. in Yuma.
More information on the efforts is on the Old Souls Animal Rescue and Retirement Home Facebook page.
Rivadeneira said Old Souls is also launching a new partnership with Hoop’s House, in which a group home for men recovering from substance abuse would be next to the animal rescue’s new base.
“We both got kicked out by our neighbors, so we decided to team up,” she said. Having the two located together would mean the Hoop’s House residents and their caretaker would be on hand to help care for the dogs and the Rivadeneiras’ other animals, as well as have the therapeutic benefits of being with them.
She said she was a little skeptical of the idea at first, but now sees it at a “match made in heaven,”
None of the residents would be violent or sexual offenders, she said. “They’re good people, and we’ll be helping them alongside helping the animals. And we have been helping people already, but this takes it to a whole new level.”
Hoop’s House opened two long-term recovery homes in city of Yuma neighborhoods this year. The first, known as “Aaron’s House,” opened in April and is operating at capacity with a waiting list. “Chad’s House” never really opened, after neighbors came out in force against it following an October open house. The facility would have been a residential one and was not required to get a special permit, Executive Director John Hooper said.
Hooper said since he formed the nonprofit early last year he’s opened three homes in Cochise County, and this year he and his wife moved from Sierra Vista back to Yuma to open more, He worked in drug and alcohol recovery here from 2007-11.
He said clients fighting drug and alcohol addiction are referred to him by probation officers in several Arizona counties, as well as inpatient and outpatient programs, jail liaisons and other sources, along with personal calls.
“The one major thing we focus on is structure. It’s important because they don’t have any structure when they’re out there, running an addict lifestyle. It’s very dangerous and it’s created a lot of issues,” he said.
The seven- to nine-month program requires its residents to attend 90 12-step meetings in the first 90 days, get a GED or take college-level classes, find a job, pay rent, continue with outpatient substance abuse treatment, save money, complete assigned chores, meet any court-ordered obligations and more.
He agreed that any residents of a future Chad’s House would benefit from living next to Old Souls’ new home. “There’s nothing more incredible for therapy than animals,” he said.
More information about Hoop’s House is available at www.hoopshouse.org.