When Bob Stirton's wife died six years ago, she left him a nice house  and a decent sum of money. Plus, he made a decent living as a  carpenter - about $30 an hour.   A tall, animated man with a gray ZZ Top-style beard, Bob was  healthy, strong and just 56 years old. It would have been easy for him  to just relax, go into "semi-retirement" and spend the next 30 years of  his life fishing and traveling. 
   There was just one problem: 
   All over the country, humane societies and animal-control agencies  were killing cats and dogs. And Bob had long since determined he was  going to do everything he could to put a stop to it. 

   Today, most of the money is gone - lost in an attempt to buy 200 acres  in Drain, where he hoped to set up a no-kill animal sanctuary to give  area humane societies an alternative to the needle. A Roseburg-area  man who Bob thought was going to back him financially changed his mind. Bob lost the land and his $20,000 investment, but he's still  fighting. 
   "What I'm trying to do before I die is show people that a person can  build a refuge - we can build them across the country - where you  don't have to kill animals," he said. 
   He'll likely have to build it somewhere other than Douglas County,  however. The events of the last two weeks have convinced Bob he's  not welcome there. 

   It all started when he lost the 200 acres in Drain. Evicted and without a  place to put the 100 cats and 36 dogs that lived in the sanctuary, he  packed everything down the road a little way and set everything up in a  clearing while he figured out what to do. 
   Well, the owner of the clearing didn't like this idea very well. The result:  Bob got to know the local sheriff's deputies pretty well as they served  him with several warnings and tickets. Eventually the deputies came with an inmate work crew, arrested Bob  and loaded up his animals for transport to the Saving Grace Pet  Adoption Center in Winchester. 

 Jared Paben/Cottage Grove Sentinel 

Bob Stirton discusses his animals with a Douglas County Sheriff's Deputy in his temporary quarters at the City Center Motel in Cottage Grove.  Drain man's dream for a no-kill animal refuge took some  rough turns, but he's still fighting to find a place for his 136 animals
 

   Now out on bail, Bob's staying in a room at the City Center Motel and  working like a madman to line something up to save his 136 animals  from what he believes is certain death - at least for most of them.   Last Wednesday, a deputy delivered a letter from Sheriff Jim Main  telling him if he didn't come get his animal by Sunday (last Sunday, the  6th) at 3 p.m., he'd be charged $10 for each dog and $5 for each cat -  per day - for the animals' room and board.   The letter also warned that if the animals aren't claimed by this Sunday  with all fees paid, they will be put up for adoption. 
   Bob believes the majority of them won't be adopted. They'll be "put to
 sleep." Killed.   "Right now, I'm just trying to save my animals," he said. 

 Focus on the animals

    Through all this, Bob's long term plans haven't changed. When he first  came down to Drain from his home in Washington, he had it all  worked out: Peaceful Living Animal Sanctuary would be a complete  no-kill animal refuge. It would take the overflow from nearby agencies  and humane societies and put them out on a large area where they can  run free, and take care of them until they either find a home or die a  natural death - spayed or neutered, of course. 
   Once he finds a home for his animal refuge, he plans to put his  carpentry skills to work, putting together the buildings and equipment  needed to take care of large numbers of animals. 

   It's not a new concept by any means. There's a famous animal shelter  in Utah called "Best Friends Animal Sanctuary." Its 3,000 acres of  stunning Southwestern canyon country are home to some 1,500 dogs,  cats, horses, burros, birds, rabbits and sheep. Best Friends was started  by a group of 20 friends, who started going into area shelters and  taking out animals who were about to be killed. By 1984, the 20  members had all the animals they could stand to live with, so they got  tax-exempt status, went to Utah and bought the land to do it right.
   Today, Best Friends boasts about 120,000 individual supporters and  has a staff of 93. 

   His 200 acres on Elk Creek are gone, and he's got a real-estate  broker in Eugene working on another deal that might set him up with  the use of a few hundred freshly logged acres to set his sanctuary up.   Problem is, it'll take a good four months to put the deal together. In the  meantime, Bob's in limbo. He's staying in a cheap motel to save  money, working on an interim solution. The room looks unoccupied -  there's nothing in it except a big bottle of some kind of veterinary  medicine sitting on the nightstand. 
    "It sure feels good to sleep in a bed again," he said. "Last couple  weeks I've been sleeping on my workbench in the back of a 48-foot  semi trailer with all my stuff in it."

 Seeking a spot

   Getting from the City Center Motel to a permanent place for the shelter  four months from now without losing the animals in his trust is the big  challenge for Bob right now.   To get there from here, he needs a place he can set up his animals on a  temporary basis. He needs a three- to four-month commitment. 
   "In the short term, I need a piece of property - I'm gonna say about  five acres, and it needs to be away from people, because 36 dogs  bark," he said. "It would be nice if it had a building on it, so I could  cover up the cats' units." 
    If he doesn't find a place to put the animals he's got by this weekend,  he'll lose them all. Some of them might be lucky enough to be adopted,  but many more will likely be euthanized. 
    "I ask elderly people what happens to their dogs when they die," said  Bob. "They say, `I don't know - our kids don't want 'em.' Well, I'll tell  you what happens to 'em." 

    "We're killing all these animals on this Earth, and I've got these  programs," he said. "I want to know, when the plate is passed around,  how come something isn't taken out for the animals?"

Update, Oct 13 -- Email from Finn

Last I heard, Bob went and got the cats in time for his deadline and was wandering around town with a $100 bill looking for someone to let him set them somewhere for three or four days. I'll keep you posted.

©2002 Cottage Grove Sentinel    Reprinted by permission