Senate Bill 705 and TAOS Accreditation On June 29, 2000 Michigan's Governor, John Engler, signed into law Senate Bill 705 - the controversial wolf dog cross ban to take immediate effect. This law prohibits the ownership of wolf-dog crosses within the state and places overly restrictive, costly and burdensome requirements on the owners of those already in existence. Owners would no longer be allowed to buy, sell, trade, breed or transfer their pets. "Grandfathered" wolf-dogs required the purchase of annual permits, permanent microchip identification, numerous postings on their fencing and buildings stating "A Potentially Dangerous Wolf-Dog Cross is kept on this property", sterilization, zoo like facilities, death certificates upon the animals passing, and for Muskegon County residents, a $60 per animal annual permit fee. Although, the $60 permit fee wouldn't be a problem for most people, it does become a problem when you operate a sanctuary that cares for 23 wolf dogs. The permit fees alone would have cost $1380.00 per year for these rescued animals. Although scientists are unable to differentiate between wolves, dogs, and wolfdogs even with DNA testing, identification of animals as wolf dogs would be based on the animal's appearance and entrusted to a broadbased set of law enforcement authorities: everyone from the village marshal to federal and state conservation officers can enter property and seize animals allegedly kept in violation of the statute. The only way the West Michigan SPCA could continue to provide a sanctuary for these animals was to become a TAOS accredited sanctuary. So that is what we set out to do. The paperwork was gathered and mailed. Everything looked good at that point. We were then inspected by the curator for the Detroit Zoo. Once again, everything looked good. We were also inspected by the USDA, the Michigan Department of Agriculture and the Muskegon County Animal Control. Everything looked good. However, Mr. Al Pearson still wasn't happy. Although the West Michigan SPCA became 1 of the 35 TAOS accredited sanctuaries in the United States on January 25, 2001, the battle to keep the wolf dogs wasn't over yet. So what was the problem? I believe the problem was that our local animal control supervisor, Al Pearson, had a vendetta against our wolf dog sanctuary. In my opinion, it is his desire to see that all wolf dogs are euthanized. Although he placed an abandoned wolf dog at our shelter in the past, when the new wolf dog bill was enacted, we were no longer considered a sanctuary by Mr. Pearson. He expected us to purchase permits for each of the wolf dogs that we had rescued, including the one from him! Mr. Pearson then paid a visit to the new Egelston Township Supervisor, Bob Whiteman. They decided we were in violation of a zoning ordinance because of the number of animals kept on our 34 acres of property. We attended a board meeting and planning meeting to see what was necessary to correct this issue. We were asked to update our site plan. An updated site plan was submitted. We just had to wait until the next planning meeting to have it voted on. However, in the mean time, Mr. Whiteman, without his board members knowledge, gave orders for us to be issued a citation. We were issued a citation and paid the fee. Once the board was informed of this, they voted to have the fee waived, the check returned, and the paperwork regarding the citation removed from our file. On Tuesday, March 6, 2001, we went before the Egelston Township Board and our updated site plan was approved. Our site plan was updated and it was voted on that we could care for up to 50 wolf dogs! (Thank you Egelston Township Board Members!) The proof of our approval was then submitted to the Prosecutor's Office and the case was dismissed on Wednesday, March 14, 2001. The wolf dogs in our care were finally safe! As a rescue who receives numerous requests to take in unwanted wolf dogs, my first thoughts were that this ban would not be so bad. After all, if there were fewer wolf dogs being bred in Michigan, there would be fewer homeless wolf dogs. Well, that is not the case. Due to lack of enforcement of the law in certain counties in Michigan, litter after litter of wolf dog puppies are still being born. So what has this law done? Well, it has forced the responsible wolf dog owners to surrender their wolf dogs to animal control agencies to be euthanized. However, the irresponsible breeders are still out there breeding their animals. These breeders are only concerned with making money, they do not educate the buyer and they are not willing to take back an animal if it doesn't work out. This leads to an increase in poorly bred wolf dogs, less educated owners, and 9 more wolf dogs for the West Michigan SPCA bringing our total to 32. The lawmakers and law enforcers for the State of Michigan should be ashamed and embarrassed for wasting time creating a bill that forced responsible people to give up their companions and continues to allow the irresponsible breeding of wolf dogs in the state of Michigan.

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