MONROE, Wash.
— Susan Michaels and Mark Steinway shared a dream. On a timbered patch of land in east Snohomish County, the husband and wife team dedicated a decade of their lives to creating an animal rescue sanctuary. Pasado’s Safe Haven has become a place of respite for legions of abused and injured cats, dogs and farm animals. Pasado’s uses the compassion and tax-free donations of supporters as a force for improving animal welfare. The charity is named in memory of a donkey tortured and killed by teenage boys at a Bellevue park in 1992. The good done for animals at Pasado’s has attracted national attention and support from celebrities including Oprah Winfrey and actor Will Smith. That’s the narrative most often connected with the nonprofit. There is another story, too. It’s a story about blurred boundaries between the founders’ personal lives and operations of the nonprofit corporation they helped establish. It’s about strained relationships that Pasado’s has with a number of officials in the region who enforce animal protection laws. And it’s about fundraising efforts that in 2007 alone brought in more than $2 million. Pasado’s has nothing to hide, Michaels said during recent interviews.
“I gave up my life for this organization,” she said. “It is worth it. It is worth every moment of my time.”