Animal groups suspend services to Island County

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, August 11, 2026

Several animal welfare groups on Whidbey are suspending the informal services they provide to Island County until officials establish protocols addressing legal, safety and liability concerns, according to a joint letter released Wednesday.

A contract with the Whidbey Animals’ Improvement Foundation, or WAIF, pays the nonprofit to receive dogs obtained by the county in abuse, neglect, abandonment and other emergency situations. But Ballydídean Farm Sanctuary, Critters Pet Rescue and Bring ‘Em Home Whidbey said in the letter the county has relied on them, purely out of “goodwill,” to receive livestock and other animals in similar situations.

Without a formal plan outlining protocols for the groups’ animal responses, they have had to accept the “legal, operational and safety risks” that come with providing these services, according to the letter.

Requests for the groups’ animal responses will be directed to ICOM’s non-emergency line or declined until such a plan is created. It is unclear how the county will handle livestock and other larger animals that need to be taken into custody while the groups’ services are suspended, but in the past organizations from other counties have helped.

“This decision was not made lightly,” the letter reads. “We care deeply about the animals and people of Island County, and it breaks our hearts to say no. But the current arrangement is unsafe and legally unclear.”

Previously, two of the groups issued a joint letter on June 30 asking the county to fund their work.

That letter claimed the county is not adequately enforcing animal control codes despite collecting fees that fund the program, which employs only one officer. A second animal control officer, who was based on Camano Island, resigned more than six months ago, but the county opted to freeze the position as it grappled with serious budget problems. County officials have also said the Camano officer did not have enough work to justify a full-time position and that animal control calls could be handled by the remaining officer and sheriff’s deputies.

An online petition calling on the county to fill the Camano Island position collected more than 500 signatures earlier this summer.

Island County Sheriff Rick Felici and the board of commissioners are addressed in Wednesday’s letter, but Felici and Commissioner Melanie Bacon had not seen it when contacted by the News-Times.

Felici declined to comment. Bacon sympathized with the groups’ frustration but reiterated that the county is financially unable to hire another animal control officer.

Wednesday’s letter calls for protocols to protect the groups responding to potentially dangerous situations. It explained that they perform animal responses “often with little warning, at odd hours and sometimes without law enforcement present.”

Obtaining funding from the county is not addressed in Wednesday’s letter. Ansel Santosa, one of the sanctuary’s owners, explained in an email to the News-Times that while funding is still a priority for these groups, liability is a bigger one.

Following proper procedures when animals are seized, including completing required paperwork, could help protect the groups from lawsuits and preserve the animals as evidence in criminal cases, he said.

Signing agreements with these animal welfare groups would also offer them legal and physical protection. “Aggressive confrontations” have occurred at the sanctuary when owners have figured out where their animals are being held, Santosa explained.

Lacking the right procedures puts animals at risk, too. Without those procedures, it is difficult to ensure animals are taken to facilities that are in better condition than the places from which they were removed, he said.

“No contracts means no vetting and no chain of custody paperwork,” Santosa said. “We are an established, regulated, nonprofit organization with oversight, but we know that evidence animals have spent nights or even months at volunteer private citizens’ homes.”

The letter links to proposed terms for formal agreements between the county and animal welfare organizations, including procedures for animal seizures, transportation, placement and chain of custody.

That document adds that the groups have a right to suspend informal county-related animal response services “except where each organization independently determines that emergency intervention is necessary, safe and within its mission and capacity.”

Wednesday’s letter emphasizes that regulating the work done by animal welfare groups is in the interest of everyone on the island.

“Island County residents deserve a real animal response system. Animals deserve one. Law enforcement deserves one,” it reads. “So do the community partners the county has been relying on to make the current broken system appear functional.”