I’d like to caution readers that this article will be long and confusing and the comment section even more so. There’s a serious situation taking place at Brother Wolf Animal Rescue-Asheville (NC) that has put the animal rescue community into shock and fury. It concerns the killing of dogs that BWAR says are too dangerous to adopt out to the public or even to other rescues.
Brother Wolf Statement from their website
We are warehousing aggressive animals at Brother Wolf when we know this isn’t the solution for lifesaving. We inherited this way of operating but we will not continue it. We are simply not doing our best for animal rescue as a whole by warehousing aggressive animals and we’re not going to do it anymore.
- Have a damaging bite history towards children or adults.
- Do not show warning signs before they attempt to bite.
- Have severely injured or killed another dog.
- Cannot be safely handled due to aggressive behaviors.
- Show offensive aggression towards humans (actively decreasing the distance between themselves and the person they are aggressing towards).
- Stalk children in a predatory manner.
- Show uninterruptible aggression towards other dogs.
- Show poor bite inhibition (degree to which dog moderates tooth contact in the case of a bite).
And from the BWAR Facebook page posted Saturday
We are grieving and we know that others in our community are too. We have had to say goodbye to several dogs who had been with us for a long time, some for several years.
With the Brother Wolf Sanctuary no longer a viable option for these specific dogs with a history of aggression, we could not watch them live being warehoused in a shelter for years. Our search for sanctuary placement did not yield any offers from organizations that we believe offer a good quality of life for the animals housed there.
Because these dogs’ histories of aggression made them unsafe to place in our community, we made the heartbreaking decision to let them go peacefully. Our staff and volunteers have known and loved these dogs for years and spent time making sure their last day was their best day. We ask the community to keep our staff and volunteers in their thoughts during this hard time.
Note from Elisa: This means those dogs will be killed! Click here for entire statement.
This Facebook video shows dangerous dog Willy as he forcefully licks and smooches volunteer Myla, who has cared for him for a long time. He’s reported among the dogs killed, but it’s unconfirmed at this time.
Animal advocates posted the current situation as of Sunday, January 12
Animal advocate Nancy Golio posted the following on Facebook
Update on this mess regarding Brother Wolf:
All the dogs are still alive per a volunteer this morning. Leah was served a cease and desist order in the wee hours this morning signed by a judge. She is not allowed to kill these dogs!!! No one protesting outside has physically laid eyes on any of the dogs slated to be killed at this time. But we have hope now! Thank you God! I prayed for this miracle.
It’s still questionable as to whether the dogs are safe. Word has it they may have been taken from the property. Other threads on Facebook say some of the dogs were killed. Hopefully, someone with first-hand info can comment below.
One thing is for certain is Leah Craig, Executive Director of BWAR-Asheville, has been served a cease and desist order by Rutherfordton attorney Andrew L. LaBreache of Woodridge Law Group. A lawsuit will be filed shortly by those who have made donations to BWAC as they’re a 501c3 non-profit organization who states they’re no-kill. No dogs may be killed and evidence will be collected.
Leah has allegedly reached out to other sanctuaries then said those who would take the dogs at no charge aren’t up to her standards. Anyone who has donated money is asked to contact BWARissues@gmail.com. Misappropriation of funds is the most common fraud against 501c3 organizations and it’s believed since BWAR has decided to kill the dogs when others were willing to take them defiles what their 501c3 states they believe in-to save all dogs who aren’t beyond help due to illness or injury.
The original of the cease and desist order can be found here.
BWARe B Their Voice Facebook page with updates can be found here.
As of Sunday afternoon, none of the local news media has picked up the story, which is common since media and animal rescue groups rarely clash on public forums. WLOS13 is the closest and have been notified of the situation.
Anyone with further information is asked to leave a comment.
