Arriving at a rural property, an Arizona sheriff’s deputy approaches a group of starving dogs behind a chain-link fence. Some are sleeping, while others bark and wag their tails. The deputy lays out food and water to corral them, body-camera video shows.
Washington
Deputy fatally shoots seven starving, abandoned dogs
The Apache County Sheriff’s Office, which serves roughly 65,000 people, maintains that the deputy did nothing wrong that day in September. Chief Deputy Roscoe Herrera said that since the county has no animal control service, deputies have discretion to handle animal issues as they see fit. The deputy, Jarrod Toadecheenie, declined to comment.
But the incident in Adamana, Ariz. — an unincorporated community about 100 miles east of Flagstaff — has outraged local animal advocates who say that shooting the dogs was the wrong solution and that the area desperately needs to address animal hoarding and abandonment. Some residents have launched Facebook groups to try to find homes for abandoned dogs and to expose people who illegally hoard animals.
“The Apache County Sheriff’s Office won’t do anything to fix the problem,” said Teresa Schumann, founder of the nonprofit Northern Arizona Animal Search and Rescue. “Animals are dying everywhere in the county.”
Molly Ottman, executive editor of the Mountain Daily Star, first obtained the body-camera footage of the incident and shared it with The Washington Post.
The dogs who were shot were owned by a divorcing couple who had abandoned the property, Toadecheenie wrote in the incident report. He wrote that he visited the home several times over a span of three weeks after neighbors called to complain about the canines.
On the first visit, he counted 10 dogs, “all of which seemed to be in good health.” A few days later, the deputy wrote, he responded to a call that the dogs had chased a neighbor’s donkey.
Toadecheenie contacted Schumann, who said she was struggling to find new owners for the dogs when the deputy called and said he would “handle it.” Schumann said she told him the dogs may need to be euthanized if they were feral.
On Sept. 22, Schumann told Toadecheenie that she hadn’t been able to find new homes for the dogs. After telling his supervisor that he planned to shoot the dogs, the deputy bought dog food and a tray, and collected water from a fire station.
Then he went to the couple’s property, corralled the dogs with the food and water, put on headphones and began to shoot the canines, the body-camera footage shows. Toadecheenie shot one dog two additional times as it continued to move.
Two dogs ran away uninjured and hid under a shed. They were later brought to a local animal shelter by Schumann. One died of parvovirus shortly after arriving, and the other was adopted, said Brandon Smigiel, a supervisor at Holbrook Animal Care and Control.
In the incident report, Toadecheenie recommended that the couple who allegedly abandoned the dogs be charged with animal cruelty. No charges had been filed as of Friday, according to county records.
Herrera, the sheriff’s chief deputy, acknowledged that the situation had caused the community “distress.”
“This tragic decision was made under extremely difficult circumstances due to a combination of limited resources, the willful neglect and abandonment of the dogs by their original owners, and the considerable amount of time spent seeking assistance from outside resources,” he said in a statement to The Post.
In a separate statement provided to KPNX 12 News on June 6, the sheriff’s office seemed to blame a lack of funding.
“Apache County does not have an animal care and control department. In the unincorporated areas that responsibility is left up to the deputies and actions taken vary and are considered on a case-by-case basis. We do not have the infrastructure or budget to support such a department.”
Schumann, who runs the rescue nonprofit, said she never thought the deputy would shoot the animals.
“It infuriates me when the sheriff’s office says they don’t have the resources” to handle animal situations differently, she said. “There are plenty of people who are trying to help.”
The Arizona Humane Society called the situation “entirely preventable” and lamented that the sheriff’s office had not asked it for help.
“This awful incident lacked all compassion and judgement,” Jennifer Armbruster, a spokeswoman for the humane society, said in a statement. “And what is most clear is that establishing an animal care and control service in Apache County is an absolute necessity to prevent something like this from happening in the future.”
Animal hoarding is at “epidemic levels” in Arizona, creating dangerous situations, said Terri Hoffman, founder of Animal Rights Champions of Arizona. Last summer, three mixed-breed pit bulls mauled a 2-year-old Apache County girl to death. Still, Hoffman said that she wants the deputy to be held accountable and that killing abandoned dogs is not an appropriate solution to hoarding.
“I’ve been to homes where there’s over 53 dogs,” Hoffman said. “Some people hoard horses and goats out here, too. I’ve seen dogs with open wounds, severe infections. Animals are dying.”
This story is from an installment of The Oeno Files, our weekly insider newsletter to the world of fine wine. Sign up here.
While Washington State has become well known for its Cabernet Sauvignon and Bordeaux-style blends in recent years, it is also home to many producers making outstanding Syrah. With just a 40-year history of cultivation in the state, Syrah is now the second most-produced red wine there as well as its best-kept secret. First planted in Washington in 1986, some early releases were treated like Cabernet Sauvignon with a lot of new oak and one-size-fits-all production method, but over time a broad spectrum of expressions has arisen among the state’s Syrahs.
Elsewhere in the U.S.A. it might seem like wineries are holding back the most exciting bottles for their neighbors, but Washington Syrah is more widely available than one might think, especially on restaurant tables. Landry’s Inc.—which operates more than 500 restaurants across the country including steakhouses such as Morton’s, Del Frisco’s, and the Palm—serves more than a dozen Washington Syrahs and a wide range of Syrah blends from the state. Scott Tarwater, corporate director of wine and special events, describes Washington Syrah as “a rugged, mountain man, unshaven, but worldly, down to earth, and plain spoken.” While he enjoys it for its savory character, he also likes that it is full of jammy notes such as boysenberry, black raspberry, and pomegranate alongside hints of ripened olives and pipe tobacco.
One of the drivers of quality in the last 20 years is the adoption of Old World techniques like stem inclusion and the use of concrete vessels, large‑format oak casks, and neutral oak barrels to let the fruit do the talking. Improved vineyard techniques have allowed for site expression to become clearer as well, with the Rocks District and Royal Slope showing savory and mineral characteristics, Red Mountain and Horse Heaven Hills bringing out more power and ripeness, and Yakima Valley showcasing a mix of the two styles.
Matt Reynvaan, founder and winemaker of R|A Family Wines, makes his JDA Project Syrah from a vineyard in the Rocks District that is defined by ancient riverbed soils layered with dense cobblestone. “These stones retain and radiate heat, lending intensity, structure, and unmistakable minerality to the fruit,” he explains. Replanted in 2020, the vineyard was designed with clonal diversity and precision farming practices tailored block by block. “Syrah is interplanted with small amounts of Viognier, and each section contributes a unique dimension, from power and structure to elegance and purity, resulting in a wine that is both complex and site driven,” Reynvaan says.
DeLille’s vineyards
DeLille
At Two Vintners, winemaker and partner Morgan Lee produces four different Syrahs including a Columbia Valley cuvée, a Rocks District bottling and single-vineyard expressions from Horse Heaven Hills and Yakima Valley, working with 13 distinct vineyards across six AVAs. “Each patch of dirt puts a stamp of individuality on the wine,” he says. “The beauty of Syrah is that it absorbs its surroundings like nothing else. It is a chameleon. It is so exciting to taste these individual parcels side by side and see how thrillingly different they are from one another.” Leaning heavily into a Northern Rhône style in his vineyard sourcing, Lee also employs Rhône techniques like native-yeast fermentation and whole-cluster pressing.
Washington’s first Syrah was planted in the Red Willow Vineyard in the foothills of the Cascades in the far northwest portion of the Yakima Valley by Mike Sauer in 1986, and winemaker Nick Bernstein utilizes fruit from that original block for DeLille Red Willow Syrah. “The Syrah here thrives on steep slopes of poor volcanic soils and creates powerful wine with deep concentration,” Bernstein says. In addition to that and DeLille’s Grand Ciel estate vineyard on Red Mountain, Bernstein also buys fruit from Boushey Vineyard, whose proprietor Dick Boushey has been a prominent grower for 45 years. This cooler site allows for more hang time, flavor development, and acid retention, leading to an earthier Syrah with dark fruit notes.
The wide diversity of Syrah can be seen in Liminal’s two offerings, High Canyon Syrah and Block 16 Syrah, which come from blocks in the WeatherEye Vineyard in the Red Mountain AVA that are about 500 yards apart but differ in aspect, elevation, and clonal selection. Liminal winemaker and partner Chris Peterson says the High Canyon block has elements of black fruits, minerals, and cured olive that remind him of Côte-Rôtie. “This is why we co-ferment with about 4 percent Viognier and choose the specific barrels to age it in and accentuate these aspects,” he explains. Meanwhile, the Block 16 exhibits the “wild herb, cured meats, and firm structure” characteristics that recall Cornas, so he ages it in 500-liter puncheons, with a style of new barrel “that shows off this more feral side.”
One of the newest additions to the Evergreen State scene is Dossier Wine Collective, whose head winemaker Billo Naravane crafts its flagship Syrah with an eye on the Northern Rhône, especially Côte-Rôtie and Cornas. Sourced from three vineyards, it offers the aromatic elegance and finesse of Côte-Rôtie alongside the structure, focus, and depth of Cornas. “Our use of concrete during fermentation is intentional. Concrete preserves purity and freshness while lending the wine a tighter, more focused profile, a hallmark we admire in many traditional Northern Rhône Syrahs,” Naravane says.
On the east coast, diners at JF Restaurant’s eateries can enjoy Syrah from Walla Walla and Columbia Valley. Beverage director and partner Amy Racine tells clients unfamiliar with the style that “Washington Syrah is a crossover between the States and Rhône Valley. It has a savory, peppery backbone similar to the northern Rhône and a ripe and juicy fruit you can find in the States.” Calling it “a category that rewards curiosity,” she tells Robb Report, “Most guests come in with a fixed idea of what Syrah is supposed to taste like, usually a Rhône reference point, and Washington Syrah surprises them by being a little familiar yet entirely its own thing.”
Do you want access to rare and outstanding reds from Napa Valley? Join the Robb Report 672 Wine Club today.
Authors
Mike DeSimone and Jeff Jenssen
Washington
Divorces granted July 2-8 in Washington, Benton counties | Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
The following divorces granted were recorded July 2-8 in the Benton and Washington county clerks’ offices:
BENTON COUNTY
25-1094. Heather Jones v. Michael Mazzarisi
25-1993. Sarah Waddle v. Brandon Waddle
26-46. Samantha Hines v. Garrett Hines
26-266. Donna Boyd v. Russell Boyd
26-329. Tara Whitwam v. Brett Whitwam
26-354. April Timboe v. Matthew Timboe
26-397. Troy Hull v. Kaley McManamon
26-419. Mark Hagel v. Michelle Hagel
26-437. Deborah Luper v. Donald Luper
26-470. Amanda Russell v. Christopher Russell
26-561. Audrey Mosher v. Dustin Mosher
26-562. Jacob King v. Ashley King
26-649. Chris Edwards v. Sara Edwards
26-664. David Carpenter v. Hannah Holtrey
26-774. Lauren Armfield v. Alexander Armfield
26-775. Sandra Saldana v. Luis Saldana
26-785. Maritza Campos v. Luis De Los Santos
26-798. Darell Shepard v. Rachel Lipscomb
26-802. Jeffery Nicholas v. Tracy Nicholas
26-809. Alicia Moreland v. Travis Moreland
26-814. Mellisa Dugger v. Matthew Crowne
26-817. Sabra Utting v. Derek Utting
26-825. Laura Wortman v. Brian Wortman
26-827. Laura Dean v. Seth Dean
26-845. William Austen v. Krystal Austen
26-846. Janine Robin v. Henry Robin
WASHINGTON COUNTY
24-472. Breayonda Bendickson v. Zackery Thompson
25-1333. Joshua Stephens v. Tiffany Pershall
25-1475. Jacqueline Lybrand v. Zachary Lybrand
25-1720. Jennifer McMahon v. Timothy McMahon
26-10. Janiky Rosario Madera v. Angel Ortiz Fuentes
26-225. Carol Kaufman v. Charles Axtell
26-268. Elizabeth Lasiter v. Prashanth Kumaresan
26-367. Shawn Harp v. Angela Harp
26-414. Patricia Johnson v. Robert Pritchard
26-518. Francisco Ramirez v. Nicole Franz
26-633. Debra Andrews v. Randy Brown
26-695. Jorge Azahares v. Dianelis Rodriguez
The Washington Huskies saw one of their most hotly contested offensive line targets in the 2027 class go elsewhere on Saturday afternoon when four-star offensive lineman DaJohn Yarborough announced his pledge to the California Golden Bears
The 6-foot-5, 340-pound product of Basha High School in Arizona, who is ranked as the nation’s No. 426 overall prospect and No. 25 interior offensive lineman by the 247Sports Composite, picked coach Tosh Lupoi and the Golden Bears out of a final four that also included Florida State, Mississippi State, and UW.
Although his junior year was cut short due to a fractured ankle, Fisch and offensive line coach Michael Switzer kept up a strong relationship with the hulking prospect, who has the size, physicality, and skill set the pair looks for from early contributors up front. However,
“The big man slides smoothly in pass protection and balances his weight well, always finding himself on the winning end of collisions with defenders,” Huskies Wire’s Alex Katson wrote in an evaluation of his film. “With such prototypical size and technique, Yarborough profiles as a player who could find himself in the NFL rather quickly with the right coaching staff during his time in college.”
As Washington continues to build up its offensive line for the rigors of the Big Ten, Yarborough would have been viewed as a promising building block alongside Freshman All-American John Mills, former five-star Kodi Greene, and former four-star Champ Taulealea, who should make up the core of Switzer’s unit in 2027.
While the Huskies had consistently been viewed among the top suitors for Yarborough’s services, but Lupoi’s staff has shown early that it can make a big impact quickly on recruits all over the West. Without Yarborough, Washington’s 2027 class consists of three offensive linemen: four-star interior prospect Gecova Doyal, four-star center Reis Russell, and three-star offensive tackle Tye Kennedy.
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