TACOMA, Wash. — A Tacoma business owner has stepped in to care for two dogs that were surrendered by a homeless man after the city shut down the People's Park encampment.
David Combs, the owner of the screen printing store The T-shirt Men Shop, heard that the dogs were being turned over to animal control as the city was in the process of shutting down the park.
He said a volunteer helping the homeless in the park told him what happened.
“She just mentioned that she just saw a man have to relinquish ownership of his dogs to get into one of the shelters,” said Combs.
Combs was familiar with the dogs, two pit bull mixes named Valentine and Princess. He also knew their owners, a woman who he said worked at Fed Ex by day and lived with her partner in a tent in the park by night. The woman would walk the dogs by his shop every day.
“I would see her playing with the dogs in the field all the time,” Combs said. “I’d ask her questions about how’s her job, how’s her day going, how’s her situation living in the park going.”
Combs said at some point, the woman stopped walking past the shop. He later heard that she had committed suicide. Not long after, he learned that Valentine and Princess had been surrendered to animal control officers.
Combs said he decided to track the animals down at the Tacoma Humane Society. He was able to get custody of the dogs and shared their stories on Facebook. He said he is now working with The Muttropolitan Dog Daycare and Boarding in Tacoma to get the dogs vaccinated and trained before offering them up for adoption.
Maureen Howard, a volunteer with the Tacoma Pierce County Coalition to End Homelessness, said the case highlights a larger problem—a lack of shelter beds that cater to the specific needs of the homeless.
“There’s a huge gap,” said Howard. “You can have an open bed, but it might not be appropriate for the person who needs the bed. So you might have someone who has a pet and a shelter that doesn’t have a way to accommodate that pet.”
The majority of Tacoma’s homeless shelters do not accommodate pets. A spokesperson with the Tacoma Humane Society said Princess and Valentine were the only dogs surrendered to them as People’s Park was cleared out.
Combs said he has received overwhelming interest from people who want to adopt the dogs.
“I hope we keep that same energy after these dogs are adopted because there are hundreds of other dogs at the Humane Society that have similar stories that need a home just like these dogs do,” he said.