It’s a story that felt like déjà vu — until the end. 

The Pinal County Board of Supervisors yesterday approved a special use permit for Arf-Anage Dog Rescue to operate a commercial kennel on Bowlin Road. The rescue sits on a 2½-acre residential property on the corner of Deer Trail in Hidden Valley. 

The county received three letters in support of the permit. No one opposed it. 

The action allows the shelter to house its 65 dogs on the property in multiple kennels that sit along a block fence with no direct neighbors. Owner Cathy Roe said the dogs had been free roaming, but Pinal County Animal Care and Control asked the shelter to kennel them.  

Despite the large number of animals on a lot that size, Supervisor Rich Vitiello (R-Maricopa) said the property is quiet and well maintained. 

“I’ve actually in the past four or five months poked my head through the metal gate that’s leaned forward and haven’t heard a peep,” he told other supervisors during the meeting, “and I did it at all different times.” 

Longtime Arf-Anage volunteer Tina Morrison said the rescue workers were relieved after the unanimous vote. 

“The special use permit allows us to continue doing the rescue work we’ve been doing,” she told InMaricopa today. “We could have been shut down if they denied that special use permit. To close those doors would have been a significant impact on the community.” 

What changed this time? 

Despite obvious parallels, the Arf-Anage permit request presented “a much different situation” than another commercial kennel’s south of city limits, said Vitiello, the former Maricopa vice mayor who lives in Cobblestone Farms. Abbott’s German Shepherds failed to obtain a special use permit from the county earlier this summer. 

Vitiello said the primary difference between the kennels is that Arf-Anage is a nonprofit. “But also from the very beginning, they signed up for a commercial kennel license as opposed to a non-commercial,” he added, noting the license was needed to comply with zoning laws. 

Abbott’s German Shepherds, a family-owned dog breeding business, operated on two properties in Thunderbird Farms. At least one of those properties switched between commercial and non-commercial licenses over the years and had lapsed licenses. The board voted to deny a permit for that property, forcing it to cease operations. 

Vitiello in July said he voted against permits for both Abbott’s properties because he was concerned the Abbott family had “never done anything correct from the beginning.”  

He reiterated the point following his vote to approve the Arf-Anage’s permit, lamenting that there were “just a lot of inconsistencies” with Abbott’s German Shepherds.