Wolves in the Neighborhood

Oct. 19, 2005

For years, John Patrick Sutherland was breeding and selling wolfdogs from his ramshackle place in Brethren, but a township official said she couldn’t get the prosecutor to put a stop to it.
“We did a lot of work back then in 2000 and 2001 and it could have been easily resolved” without bloodshed, said Maria Flynn, former zoning administrator for Dickson Township. “(Prosecutor) Ford Stone absolutely refused to prosecute.”
But Prosecutor Stone countered that the animals had already been licensed as dogs and believes it would have been an impossible case to win.

Police are still investigating
Questions still abound over the September 23rd showdown outside the tiny village of Brethren between 30 law enforcement officials and the man who wanted to protect his 19 dogs. A day of negotiations apparently broke down and ended in a flurry of gunfire, leaving Sutherland dead and a Traverse City policeman wounded. Manistee County’s Animal Control unit is still caring for 14 wolfdogs that were left on the property (five dogs—not wolf hybrids—were immediately removed ). The wolfdogs will likely be placed into a sanctuary by a refuge group, said Steven Halstead, state veterinarian for the state Department of Agriculture.
John Sutherland, 57, told his neighbors soon after moving to Brethren in the late 90s that he owned wolfdogs, but he gave Animal Control a different story, saying they were dogs. In fact, he bought dog licenses in 2000, the year a wolf hybrid law went into effect.
Neighbors complained for years that Sutherland’s wolfdogs frequently escaped and feared they would attack their children and animals. Halstead said that his department was contacted 1 1/2 years ago so that an expert could determine whether the dogs were, in fact, hybrids. Under state law, a wolf expert must make that determination, he said.
The expert concluded that they were likely wolfdogs, and wanted to visually inspect the dogs on the morning of Sept. 23rd. But when county deputies and the expert arrived at Sutherland’s place with a search warrant, he refused to let them onto the property and brandished a gun. The deputies retreated and returned with some 30 enforcement officials from surrounding counties.
Rumors abound over what exactly happened, but law enforcement officials are unable to share details until an investigation is complete. The Michigan State Police, which was not involved in the confrontation, expects to complete its report by Oct. 20th at the earliest, said Stone. At that point, he will review the report, and also get a second, independent opinion from a prosecutor in another county.

Wolfdogs multiplied and so did tensions
When the wolf hybrid law was passed in 2000, it allowed current owners to keep their wolfdog, but they had to be sterilized and safely contained. The owner also had to have microchips inserted under their skin. The law banned any further buying, selling, or breeding of wolfdogs.
Kathy Fenstmacher, who was Manistee County’s animal control officer up until 2002, said she filled three notebooks, proving that Sutherland was breaking the law – yet Stone wouldn’t prosecute under the new law.
Her strongest evidence was from an Internet site where he was selling the animals. It’s a very closed world, but she was able to get to the site after a tip-off from an associate of Sutherland’s.
“It’s cult-like, underworld stuff. Very seclusive and isolated and very hard to break into,” she said.
On the Internet, Sutherland posted pictures of the wolfdogs with his son, Matt, and marketed the dogs as wolfdogs. She unsuccessfully attempted to get a wolf expert from Wolf Park to come to Brethren to make an identification. Fenstmacher said she couldn’t remember whether she called the state Department of Agriculture for assistance to make positive identification, but recalls it seemed futile because the prosecutor refused to take action.
Meanwhile, tensions built.
“As time went by, John got so many animals that it became very hard to take care of them. The cost was getting high, and then he had the added pressure from the state Department of Agriculture to abide by the law. He was stressed. It became very frustrating for him, the officers, and the neighbors who had put up with this noise.
“You hate to lay blame, but the prosecutor had the final jurisdiction. The buck does stop there,” she said. “It gets to be old crap, but the frustration level was high with everyone concerned. Unfortunately, it ended up in someone getting killed and I feel horrible about that.”
Ford Stone, who was prosecutor at the time and still holds that office, said he was in a difficult position. The county Treasurer’s office had issued dog licenses after receiving payment and proof of rabbis vaccinations, while county Animal Control was asking him to enforce the law with the assumption the dogs were wolf hybrids.
Stone said he didn’t believe he could win the case because they had dog licenses, and also didn’t want two county departments going up against each other in court. Stone also said it took years for the state Department of Agriculture to assist by positively identifying the dogs as wolf hybrids.
“There is one expert for the entire state. They’d tell us, we’ll get to Mr. Sutherland’s dogs, but not until next year,” he said.
Yet Halstead, from the state Department of Agriculture, said he recalls that the first contact was 11/2 years ago when they sent out an expert to videotape. Several other groups also became involved in this case, including the DNR, the Michigan Humane Association, and the refuge group. He said they used Fenstmacher’s evidence when asking for the search warrant.
Stone said he did prosecute Sutherland in 2000 for violating the noise ordinance. Sutherland was also ticketed numerous times for letting his dogs run at large. If he had to do it over again, he would hve immediately called the state Department of Agriculture.
The agriculture department is now deeply involved and is investigating a neighbor’s claims that Sutherland kept two wolves off-site for breeding. The neighbor also alleged that Sutherland bred dogs with a coyote he owned.

“If you tried to work with him, you could work with him.”
Maria Flynn said that she and the animal control officer met often with John Sutherland to discuss the problem with his wolfdogs (they often escaped, but never attacked anyone). She said she never considered her life in danger, despite the fact that Sutherland always carried a gun.
“I was a mere woman,” she said, laughing. “He threatened me and I just don’t threaten. I dig in my heels. He thought about it later and apologized. That was his character. Kathy (the animal control officer), who is very good with people, would just let John vent. If you tried to work with him, you could work with him.
“At one point, Kathy had to take his guns away from him and she did it. Her life was not in danger. He always carried a gun in the back of his pants. Everyone knew it. He felt it was his right to have a gun on his own property and it was.”
Fenstmacher said that she had several interesting conversations with Sutherland .
“He was big into the Indian stuff and he said he was part Indian,” she said. “He had tremendous knowledge on Indian culture and wolves and what they meant. I learned a lot from him. He had an absolute love for the dogs. I can’t take that away from him.”
Wolfdogs weren’t Sutherland’s only challenges. He was also in violation of township’s junk ordinance, the wild and exotic animal ordinance, and the zoning ordinance, because he was living in a trailer.
Despite his problems, Flynn believes there never would have been a confrontation if the case had been prosecuted five years ago.
“I wasn’t there, but he did not need to be gunned down and that’s exactly what happened,” she said. “We wanted him to double fence with concrete, micro-chip and neuter them. That’s all anybody wanted.”