Woman found with Smiley will not be prosecuted

Island County Prosecutor Greg Banks put the Smiley saga to rest with an announcement Wednesday that he will not prosecute Karen Moore, the previously unnamed woman who was found walking Smiley the dog at a South Whidbey park April 1.

"The injuries caused by the Smiley saga are healing," he wrote. "I have concluded no good can come of reopening those wounds."

Smiley was the dog at the heart of a lawsuit between Whidbey Animals' Improvement Foundation and two former volunteers, Bob Baker and Barbara Moran. The volunteers wanted to prevent the animal shelter from euthanizing Smiley; WAIF deemed the dog unadoptable.

The evening of Island County Superior Court Judge Vickie Churchill's ruling in favor of WAIF, someone broke into the Coupeville shelter and stole the Smiley.

According to police reports, Moore denied knowing that Smiley had been stolen from WAIF, claiming she found him as a stray.

At a Feb. 16 WAIF board meeting, while Smiley's whereabouts were yet unknown, Moore told the Whidbey News-Times that she had volunteered at WAIF for four years until she stopped about a year ago because she felt like her suggestions for shelter improvements were not being heard.

WAIF has since transferred Smiley to a rescue foundation outside of Island County.

Banks wrote that prosecuting Moore would not be in the public interest.

"I will not spend more county resources to mete out punishment in this case," he wrote.

Moore could not be reached for comment.

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