The Attorney General’s Office announced today it has filed 48 total criminal charges of animal cruelty against two individuals and their organization, Neo’s Nation Animal Foundation, which previously managed the Pasco shelter. 

Today the Attorney General’s Office filed 32 criminal charges against Jason Smith of North Bend for illegal hunting. The charges, which include two felonies, 27 gross misdemeanors and three misdemeanors, allege that Smith unlawfully baited and killed bears and elk, and unlawfully hunted deer.

SEATTLE — Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced an environmental lawsuit today against numerous manufacturers of PFAS, commonly referred to as “forever chemicals.” The lawsuit asserts these companies knew for decades about the serious risks these chemicals posed to humans and the environment. The companies likely made many millions in profit while actively deceiving the public.

TACOMA — A Pierce County Superior Court judge has ordered Electron Hydro, LLC and its Chief Operating Officer Thom Fischer to pay a total of $1 million in fines and restitution as a result of Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s Environmental Protection Division’s prosecution. As part of the sentence, the company will pay $745,000 to the Puyallup Tribal Fisheries to help restore the Puyallup River.

TACOMA — Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced today that Electron Hydro, LLC and its Chief Operating Officer Thom Fischer pleaded guilty to a gross misdemeanor violation of operating an unlawful hydraulic project. The plea avoids a trial for Fischer and his company.

OLYMPIA — A federal judge has ruled that Crown Resources committed thousands of violations of the Clean Water Act in its operation of the Buckhorn Mountain gold mine in Okanogan County. The order comes as part of Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s ongoing environmental citizen suit against Crown Resources and Kinross Gold.

OLYMPIA — Attorney General Bob Ferguson today filed a motion to intervene and oppose an expansion to the Gas Transmission Northwest (GTN) pipeline that runs through Washington state. Ferguson asserts the company’s requested expansion would hurt Washingtonians and increase greenhouse gasses that the state is working to reduce over the coming decades.

A federal judge ruled that the U.S. Navy’s environmental review process for the Growler jet program expansion on Whidbey Island illegally failed to analyze the impacts of the noisy, often low-flying jets on classroom learning and local birds — a violation of the National Environmental Policy Act. This is the latest legal setback for the Navy in Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s lawsuit challenging the Whidbey Island Growler expansion.

OLYMPIA — Attorney General Bob Ferguson today announced that Derrick Boss, the owner of Above and Beyond Asbestos Removal in Bothell, was sentenced to 105 days in jail and ordered to pay full restitution to his victims for environmental crimes he committed in his asbestos abatement business.

OLYMPIA — Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced today a lawsuit against the Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) asserting that they violated federal environmental law when deciding in February to replace up to 165,000 vehicles with primarily gas-powered models rather than making a larger switch to electric vehicles.