This week, Born Free USA celebrated a small but meaningful victory with a group of concerned neighbors in Anacortes, Washington, when a special use permit submitted by the animal facility Predators of the Heart (POTH) was denied by a city council Hearing Examiner.
If it had been granted, the special use permit would have allowed POTH to operate as a ‘sanctuary’ (despite holding no genuine accreditations, i.e., certified under the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries, and breeding animals in captivity) and continue dangerous practices harmful to human public health and safety including their ‘wildlife tours,’ during which visitors could pet and take photos with wolves and wolf-dog hybrids in an open-contact setting.
Before the hearing took place in August 2023, the County preliminarily conditioned the permit on POTH instituting additional safety measures, including perimeter fences with anti-dig measures, to mitigate the risk of future wolf escapes. As confirmed by several residents whose properties border the POTH facility, multiple wolf escapes occurred within recent years, with at least two separate instances resulting in the death of a family dog. During the hearing, neighbors and community residents expressed sorrow over the loss of pet dogs, anger over POTH staff’s alleged lack of control over their animals, and fear that future escapes would result in new harm to pets and people.
According to POTH, the costs associated with installing the required safety measures would force them to shut down and ‘euthanize’ (kill) their animals. They also claimed that their USDA-C exhibitor license should be enough for the County to allow them to reopen as a permitted wild animal ‘sanctuary’ under Skagit County law.
With the help of testimony given by Born Free USA at the hearing, which highlighted that using dangerous wild animals and non-native wildlife for interaction experiences does not provide any visitor education or animal conservation benefits, wolves and wolf-dog hybrids are wild animals that will remain unpredictable and aggressive for their entire lives despite training and early human habituation, and the potentially fatal risk of zoonoses transmission (primarily including rabies), we emphasized that POTH exists purely for the sake of entertainment that happens at the expense of the animals in their care, and was therefore undeserving of and unqualified for such a special use permit.
Before this hearing, Born Free USA had several prior dealings with POTH and private exotic animal ownership in the state of Washington. In 2006, Born Free filed a complaint with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) documenting violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act by then POTH owner David Coleburn. This complaint documented various instances during which our investigators were allowed repeated and direct physical contact with bobcats with whom Mr. Coleburn attested he had been severely injured by in the past.
In February of 2008, Born Free called on the Chehalis City Council in Washington, to prohibit public displays of wild and exotic animals. This request was a direct response to a gathering of the Phoenix Exotic Wildlife Association at Yard Birds Mall, where the public was put at risk by allowing people, including children, to have direct contact with dangerous and unpredictable wild animals owned by POTH.
