Couple get 2 years to relocate special needs dogs 1 HOBART | A Hobart couple will be given two years to find homes for 30 dogs that are currently living with them in their home on North Hobart Road, if a recommendation by the Board of Zoning Appeals is approved by the City Council. Diane Link Polgar and her husband, Robert, foster the dogs, most of which have special needs. But city code limits the number of dogs in a home to three, and the couple were technically operating as a kennel without a permit. The zoning board’s recommendation would give the Polgars a kennel variance for two years, but prevent them from bringing any additional dogs into their home. It also would require them to meet with code enforcement after a year to make sure they were working to find homes for the dogs. Diane Polgar said she takes in dogs that would otherwise be euthanized because they either have health issues or are too old to be adopted. “People want to adopt perfect dogs,” she said. She said her dogs have a variety of medical conditions, ranging from bipolar disorder to hypothyroid issues. She said all of her dogs get whatever medical care they need and are spayed and neutered and are up-to-date on vaccinations. They each have their own blankets and sleeping space, live indoors and don’t bark much, she said. The dogs are supervised when they are outside for short periods of time, she said. Polgar, 62, works two part-time jobs to pay for the expense of having so many dogs. She said her paycheck from the Lake Station Pet Clinic is reinvested into that facility to pay for the dogs’ care. Zoning board member Ron Jackson said he went to visit the Polgar home and the house is clean and doesn’t have an odor. The dogs are clean and well fed, and neighbors don’t object to the number of dogs she has, he said. “She really is like Mother Teresa for these small pets,” he said. “But you can’t keep that many dogs in a residential area (indefinitely).” Fran Ranger, the president of Safe Haven Dog Rescue, said Polgar fosters dogs for her agency and always takes very good care of her dogs. “She treats her dogs like they are her kids,” Ranger said. Polgar said she and her husband even take most of the dogs with them when they go on vacation. The two larger dogs and some of the sicker dogs are boarded, but the rest pile into the couple’s Ford Explorer for road trips. “We dress them up and put their sunglasses on them for the road,” she said. She said she was happy about the proposed two-year variance, and agreed that having 30 dogs in her home is not an ideal situation. “It’s better than the alternative of having to get rid of them right away,” she said. “But it’s going to be hard to find new homes for them, even with two years.”
Posted on: Tue, 11 Mar 2014 13:46:16 +0000
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