A man who let a group of wolfdogs run free in the garden of his “filthy and uninhabitable” Grangemouth home has been banned from keeping animals for five years.
A court heard Graham McQuet often left the animals “effectively abandoned” with one developing a friction sore from wearing an electric shock collar.
A court heard McQuet did not go near the property, where up to six of the animals were kept in kennels in the back garden, for several days at a time.
The 40-year-old was also fined £2,075 at Falkirk Sheriff Court.
Sheriff Craig Harris said McQuet, who also worked as a dog trainer, had liked the status the wolfdogs gave him but they had “suffered for his ego.”
Investigators found there was little clean water for the animals and they had resorted to drinking from a leaky tap in the garden.
The animals – wolf/dog hybrids shipped in from breeders in Russia and Eastern Europe – had up to 98 per cent wolf DNA, the court was told.
One animal died of blood loss after trapping and severing its leg in a cage.
McQuet put the body in a freezer and the leg in a wheelie bin. It was later found with chew marks, suggesting it had been gnawed by another animal after death.
Prosecutor Karen Chambers said McQuet had “deliberately kept the animals undernourished so they looked more like wolves”.
The conditions came to light after one of the wolfdogs chewed its way through the roof of a kennel and escaped.
Concerned neighbours, who had already reported the wolves fighting and howling when McQuet was not there, called the SSPCA.
McQuet repeatedly denied SSPCA officers entry to his house to assess the full state of the premises. They eventually secured a warrant to search the property.
One neighbour said there was constant howling coming from the wolfdogs all day and sometimes through the night.
A video she filmed from the window of her home showed a large black wolf-like animal mounting the shed roof.
In a second video, the animals were whimpering and sounded as though they were in pain.
She added that a kennel which was eventually built for the animals was filthy and soiled with urine and faeces, a water bowl was empty and she could see no food.
Another neighbour said one of the animals had escaped on multiple occasions.
She said: “She didn’t growl at us she did sort of stare at us.
“She was very intense. She was very intimidating. It was almost like she was hunting us when she saw us.”
A cat was found in house in conditions described by the sheriff as “deplorable” and “neither fit for man nor beast”, and a terrier dog was seen being attacked by the wolfdogs.
McQuet was found guilty of failing to meet the needs of the terrier and seven wolfdogs that stayed at the property between October 2019 and November 2022, and causing unnecessary suffering to the wolfdog found with shock collar sores.
McQuet denied the charges and said in evidence that he fed the animals on bone, red meat, chicken feet and kangaroo, and apart from exceptional occasions visited and exercised them daily.
He said he cleaned the animals’ droppings every day and jet-washed the garden twice a week.
Sheriff Harris said he took account of the fact that McQuet had voluntarily signed over all his surviving animals and all had recovered from any health complaints they had in his care.
The sheriff said the accused “clearly loved” the wolfdogs and his emotion in a video where he said goodbye to them was “heartfelt.”
But, he told McQuet: “I’m dealing with a sustained failure over a period of more than two years in relation to multiple animals where their needs were not met, taken together with an occasion when unnecessary suffering was caused to one, and you allowed a cat to live in squalid conditions.”
Little Zoo, the animal sanctuary who took in the wolfdogs, said they were “horrified” at the condition they arrived in, describing them to be “unsocialised, terrified, injured and in poor body condition”.
SSPCA Inspector Fiona Thorburn said Little Zoo had taken in the animals at “significant expense”, saying that the animals’ future would have been at risk otherwise.
Thorburn said: “The wolfdogs have recovered physically from their neglect but behavioural damage from such poor conditions along with the inappropriate use of shock collars in their training will unfortunately remain.
“Housing these animals in small domestic kennels, from which they at times escaped causing fear and alarm to nearby residents, was cruel and negligent.”
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