Brother Wolf signals mission change, shift away from animals with history of aggression

Elizabeth Anne Brown | The Citizen-Times

ASHEVILLE - Brother Wolf Animal Rescue will shift away from dogs with severe behavioral issues in order to serve the greatest number of animals possible, executive director Leah Craig Fieser told the Citizen Times.

"The key is Brother Wolf now believes in using the resources (we) have to save the greatest number of lives because that is what we are here to do," Fieser said.

But some longtime supporters and volunteers feel this is a betrayal of BWAR's founding mission.

"Seven of my loving, furry friends may be killed by the end of the year unless Brother Wolf becomes the uncompromised compassion shelter it was before new leadership came on board," said Chester Lilly, who volunteered with BWAR for five years.

'You cannot fix aggression'

Moving forward, the organization will raise its standards for adoptability when it comes to aggression.

"We do not feel like it's a responsible decision for an animal rescue to adopt out an animal who has a severe, damaging bite history to adults or children," Fieser said, adding the same applies to dogs that have "severely damaged or even killed another animal."

The executive director, who has been at Brother Wolf since January, said the nonprofit has placed animals with serious bite histories in adoptive and foster homes in the past. "The problem is that behaviorists agree, aggression is not something you can fix. You cannot fix aggression."

"You can try to keep (the animal and others) safe, but safety precautions are bound to fail at some point," she added. "We as an animal rescue organization really have that responsibility on us to say, what kind of animals are you placing in the community, not just for the person who adopts the animal but for their neighbor? What about the kid that delivers the news, what about the dog that lives next door?"

A recent update to the shelter's website has added language about community safety in BWAR's no-kill philosophy.

"We use euthanasia as a compassionate, end-of-life decision when an animal is suffering from a severe medical or behavioral condition or is a danger to other animals or people," BWAR's website states.

"We consider the animal’s quality of life, community safety, and whether it’s realistic to manage aggressive or difficult behaviors or health conditions in a home without risk to people or other animals."

Ideological clash with volunteers

Some Brother Wolf volunteers have protested the euthanasia of animals they believed were adoptable, beginning with Ferguson and Rhubarb in September and Tucker in late November.

"Rhubarb ... has two bites, one adult and one child, with severe dog aggression," BWAR animal care manager Brian McDermott told the Citizen Times by phone in September.

At one point when Rhubarb was living in a home environment, a neighbor's unleashed dog rushed in the front door and Rhubarb attacked, Fieser explained. "The (neighbor dog's owner) had to beat Rhubarb with a golf club until she was unconscious because she wouldn't let go," she said.

"Ferguson has three or four (previous bites), one pretty serious to a photographer on (Brother Wolf) campus," McDermott said.

Kayla Wellman, who says she fostered Ferguson, remembers his behavior differently.

"Ferguson just needs love and attention," Wellman said. "When I fostered Ferguson even the staff at Brother Wolf noticed a difference in him and were hoping I’d be a foster fail," meaning that she would adopt the dog.

Behaviorist perspectives

Jillian Orlando, a board-certified veterinary behaviorist based in Raleigh, works with families whose pets have "problematic behaviors" from house soiling to fear and aggression. Orlando said she had not heard of Brother Wolf before her interview with the Citizen Times.

Orlando said that the "history of aggression" category can be a big bin — from animals who have attacked family members without warning to dogs who snapped at a child after parents let "the kids basically torture the dog."

"It's always great if you can take these things on a case-by-case basis rather than having blanket policies," she said.

Dogs with a history of significant aggression will "always need" specialized management, Orlando said, but advising a rescue organization with an aggressive dog is worlds away from advising a family with an aggressive dog.

Beyond obvious questions of liability, Orlando said it's reasonable for shelters to be almost prohibitively choosy about potential adoptive families for dogs with significant bite histories.

"The treatment and management recommendations (for a dog with aggression) are typically tailored to your family, your situation, (the dog's) specific triggers," she said.

Rescues "can't necessarily know for sure that the new potential adopters will manage the dog correctly," Orlando said.

"People always say, 'Well, what if I find a home with no kids and no dogs?' That person has to commit to never having that dog around other kids or other dogs," she explained. "Is that something that's actually feasible? Will they be able to do that?"

Community criticism

Some longtime volunteers have expressed shock and frustration that BWAR seems to be moving away from its mission of giving "problem dogs" a chance.

Chester Lilly, the BWAR volunteer, was asked not to return after criticizing the shelter's euthanasia decisions and repeatedly posting negatively about BWAR on social media, according to both Lilly and Fieser.

Lilly said he enjoyed volunteering with "fearful and behavioral problem dogs" under the guidance of BWAR's staff behaviorists at the time.

"We had many successful stories with placing many of those dogs at BWAR but there have been some that just haven’t met the right person yet," Lilly said. "These dogs usually do require a lot of guidance to work with but sometimes the right individual comes along and they hit it off very quickly."

For some of the dogs in question — Rhubarb, Ferguson and Tucker included — only a handful of volunteers and staff are able to work with or handle them safely, Lilly and Fieser agreed. In some cases, reactive dogs or dogs with a history of aggression have only one person they tolerate.

'We don't have a sanctuary'

Fieser said she understands the frustration about cases like Rhubarb and Ferguson.

"People are saying, 'Brother Wolf said they were going to sanctuary these animals,'" meaning that they'd keep custody of the animals permanently without looking for an adoptive or foster home. "That's valid."

Supporters recall plans for a $4.9 million, 83.5-acre facility in Leicester to provide a permanent home for high-needs animals.

Background: Brother Wolf Animal Rescue sells Leicester sanctuary

"Part of the reason Brother Wolf said they were going to build a sanctuary is because they knew they had a population of animals who could not be placed into homes," Fieser said. "It is very sad and unfortunate how that project was managed and that it never came to fruition, but we don't have a sanctuary. We are a converted warehouse — it is not OK to warehouse animals" indefinitely.

'The many versus the few'

"What we're really facing is a moral dilemma," Fieser said. "It's choosing the many versus the few. There's no great answer either way.

"But we feel that as an animal rescue organization, we have the responsibility to use the resources that we have to make the greatest impact that we can."

Only Texas and California euthanize more animals a year than North Carolina.

"I get emails every single day of dogs that are dying that have heartworms and that's why they're being put to sleep," Fieser said. "I got an email about a cat who ... died because she needed stitches and antibiotics. These are needless deaths."

Though many assume the label "no-kill" means a shelter never euthanizes animals, the term actually refers to shelters with a "90% or more save rate," she said.

In 2018, 95.2% of animals in Brother Wolf's care had "live outcomes," meaning they were either adopted, returned to their owner, altered and released (as in stray cat colonies) or transferred to another organization.

What "no-kill" means is a question that the Asheville Humane Society has grappled with as well.

As Tracy Elliott, then-director of AHS, wrote in a 2017 opinion piece:

"In the worthy pursuit of achieving a no-kill goal, and responding to enormous public pressure to do so, some shelters have lost sight of an animal’s right to express normal behavior and to be free of fear and distress,' he wrote. "Dogs stacked in crates for months on end is not humane. Neither is keeping a suffering cat alive to achieve a goal."