ANACORTES — The screaming began on a crisp October morning three years ago in a forested residential area on the outskirts of Anacortes.
Breanne Kozera recalled racing outside as her mother-in-law shouted at three escaped wolf dogs from a neighboring exotic animal compound who pulled the family’s chihuahua-terrier mix from the neck and legs as it died.
The episode in 2021 represented an inflection point in a decades-old dispute pitting neighbors and Skagit County officials against the nonprofit Predators of the Heart wildlife operation that had bred and raised hybrid wolf dogs.
A year after the incident, Kozera’s parents joined neighbors in a Superior Court suit alleging the facility threatened their safety and caused a public nuisance.
In a separate legal dispute, Predators of the Heart, now renamed Because We Matter, is challenging a Skagit County Superior Court decision to uphold a denial of a special-use permit the facility needs to operate as an animal preserve, conduct private tours, and continue housing alligators, cougars and wolf dogs among its 56 species. If the permit is denied, the facility could be forced to close and the animals may be euthanized, Executive Director Ashley Carr said.
The Washington Court of Appeals has scheduled briefings on Thursday, Oct. 24.
“It has been one legal thing after another,” Carr said.
Carr said she has abided by all regulations under her exhibitor license from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) since taking over in 2020 from her estranged father, Dave Coleburn.
Carr, 38, said she has not talked to her father since he was locked out of the property after the board of directors fired him for improper animal husbandry, sexual harassment and mismanagement of funds.
“What we strived for in the past four years is to make things right,” said Carr, who was in charge when Kozera’s dog was killed.
Carr said the difference now is she and her crew do not abuse animals, an allegation against Coleburn when he was fired. Carr said she carefully follows USDA dietary recommendations and “gives these animals a forever home so they don’t have to be euthanized. I rescued the animals from my dad — as hard as it is to say.”
Coleburn, 68, said a court order prohibited him from addressing allegations tied to running the facility he launched in 1998 as a traveling exhibit to promote caring for animals and delivering anti-drug-and-alcohol messages to youth.
Coleburn was in charge when the first hint of trouble occurred in 2012 at the Anacortes Community Forest Land, a city park partially bordering the wildlife compound.
According to Skagit County records, it took three officers to capture a wolf dog that escaped Predators of the Heart. The animal then damaged the interior of a city transport vehicle on the way to the compound.
Two years later, Skagit County commissioners passed a dangerous animals ordinance that was more restrictive than Washington state regulations. It prohibited ownership of exotic animals, specifying the cougars and wolf dogs Coleburn owned.
Coleburn, who said he moved the facility to the current location in 2001 because of restrictive Anacortes city codes for exotic pets, continued operating.
Skagit County officials sued in 2015, alleging violations of the ordinance. However, the case was dismissed on procedural grounds for failure to prosecute.
The conflict didn’t end there.
In 2016, Coleburn launched a Howling with Ambassadors Airbnb with tours costing $200 per person. Visitors howled with the wolf dogs and entered enclosures to pet and take photos of them.
Some residents complained the enterprise disrupted the unincorporated neighborhood with traffic and noise.
Tensions escalated in 2017 when a man walking his dog in the adjacent community forest accidentally entered the facility along a maintained trail with no fencing or signage.
Two wolf dogs broke free from Coleburn’s leashes and killed the neighbor’s border collie/retriever.
“I cried over that,” Coleburn said in an interview. “It was over in a minute. I’ll never forget it.”
Neither will the son of David and Meg Mourning, whose grandfather had taken the dog for a walk. The boy, then 14, submitted a statement to Skagit County last year saying he was afraid to walk his new dog in the woods because of the incident.
“I’ve had panic attacks triggered by the sound of wolf calls,” the boy wrote as part of the county special-use permit case. “The image of seeing my dear dog, mangled and gorey [sic], has haunted me ever since.”
Then came the fatal attack on Kozera’s pet on her parents’ 5-acre property that prompted the city of Anacortes to close the community forest briefly.
Carr, who said she began working with animals at age 12, testified during the permit case that she euthanized the wolf dog because of Skagit County demands to keep it in a six-sided enclosure and to muzzle the animal whenever it was moved.
“That was a decision that we had to make for her mental well-being,” Carr testified.
Court documents also show Carr also blamed the incident on an unleashed dog digging a hole under the fence to allow her animals to escape but provided no substantive evidence in the hearing to support the allegation.
Carr said she has since added two layers of fences and dig-barriers to keep her wolf dogs from escaping. The hybrids stay in six-sided enclosures overnight when no one guards the compound.
“I want the community to feel safe, and I want to do right by the animals,” she said of the facility that looks as clean as a municipal zoo as observed by CDN on a tour for journalists.
In her special-use permit application, Carr alleged Kevin Welch, who lives a quarter-mile above the compound, sued Predators of the Heart as leverage to buy its 10-acre property. Carr said the dispute amounts to a wealthy landowner — Welch is chairman of commercial real estate advisory firm AXCS Capital — against a small nonprofit.
In a statement to a county hearing examiner overseeing the permit case, Welch said four couples sued in response to the attack on Kozera’s pet.
The plaintiffs declined interview requests through Alison Caditz, a Seattle lawyer representing the neighbors. She said the suit is in the discovery phase.
“The safety issues that have been going on for over a decade have continued,” Caditz said. “Every time we hear this isn’t going to happen again, it happens again.”
Carr defends questions about her motives
Carr invited more controversy when saying she might have to euthanize 80% of her animals if Predators of the Heart closes.
Hannah Thompson-Garner of the Seattle-based Northwest Animal Rights Network questioned Carr’s motives, saying accredited compounds are well equipped to rehome the animals.
Carr rejected the assertion, saying wildlife sanctuaries are full. She also said her animals have become too accustomed to humans, and the cougars and many of her wolf dogs are too old and sickly to be uprooted.
Carr acknowledged in the county permit case that Predators of the Heart had euthanized nine of its 24 wolf dogs a year after a veterinarian put down the hybrid that killed Kozera’s pet.
Carr testified the nine wolf dogs had exhibited mental stress in their enclosures or were elderly and suffered from medical issues. Carr told CDN she also had to euthanize an elderly wolf dog in August.
Talk of euthanization got the attention of the California-based nonprofit Animal Legal Defense Fund.
In July, the group formally asked the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to investigate Predators of the Heart for violations of the Endangered Species Act, contending Carr’s hybrid wolf dogs are federally protected gray wolves and therefore cannot be harmed.
An official said the agency does not comment on activities by the Office of Law Enforcement or correspondence it receives.
Animal Legal Defense Fund lawyers based their conclusions on a federal lawsuit of another Washington game farm. Genetic tests taken for the case found four animals bred at Predators of the Heart and sold to the private zoo were gray wolves.
Carr said her wolf-hybrids are “domesticated” and she handled them humanely while following USDA guidelines. USDA exhibitor licensing does not require college degrees to handle wild animals. Carr, who said her first exotic animal was a skunk, had planned to go to school to become a mechanic. While she doesn’t have a college degree, Carr said she and her staff have undergone two-year training programs sanctioned by USDA to handle big cats. She also has a zoologist on staff who has a master’s certificate in wildlife management.
During a recent tour, the wolf dogs rushed to a fence to greet Carr, who wore a T-shirt that read, “Wolf Whisperer.”
“We never force our animals to do anything they don’t want to do,” she said while addressing each wolf dog by its name.
Whether the animals are gray wolves is not part of the Skagit County cases. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife says on its website that wolf-dog hybrids have no federal or state legal status for special protection. A WDFW spokesman said the agency does not regulate Predators of the Heart because it is not a wildlife rehabilitator or game farm.
“We typically do not regulate private zoos maintaining domestic or exotic animals, though those may be subject to other state, county or federal laws,” he said.
Thirty-six states, including Washington, allow people to own wolf dogs but sometimes with restrictions. Also, local jurisdictions like Skagit County can declare the practice illegal even if the state doesn’t.
Wolf dog ownership has been controversial because more than 100 people — including 82 children — have been injured from attacks between 1982 and 2023, according to a national database kept by the Washington state nonprofit Animals 24-7. According to the records, 21 of the attacks were fatal.
Permit application for Airbnb tour
Carr offered Airbnb tours until early 2022 when Skagit County officials said she needed a permit for the enterprise.
Although her permit application included hosting tours, Carr said she no longer wants to offer on-site visits, which had brought in almost $900,000 in one year, Internal Revenue Service records show.
If she can overcome the legal hurdles, Carr plans to secure grants for virtual educational tours and use her USDA Class R license to become a wolf-hybrid research facility.
The nonprofit organization would need about $600,000 annually to function, she said.
Predators of the Heart currently relies on donations from the public and sponsors. Carr regularly features the wolf dogs in TikTok videos to garner support.
She said food for her 100 animals, including sloths, porcupines and a giant anteater, is donated primarily by Walmart through a third party. Her animals eat 6,000 pounds of meat and 1,200 pounds of produce per week, Carr said.
“Our motto is if we can’t provide an animal with a really good life, we don’t deserve it,” said Carr, who said she has eight pet dogs.
Carr said Predators of the Heart provides community service by rehoming exotic pets confiscated by animal control officers, the military and local law enforcement.
The facility is subject to annual USDA inspections. Inspectors have not cited Predators of the Heart for violating the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) during the past six visits, including one on July 8 this year. Records show the compound has been inspected 20 times since 2015, with a dozen mostly minor violations.
Daniel Waltz, managing attorney for the Animal Legal Defense Fund, described USDA standards as “minimal” and “meager.”
He said only facilities sanctioned by the Association of Zoos & Aquariums or Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries are legitimate.
A spokesperson for the Department of Agriculture did not answer questions about the criticism from Waltz, but said in a statement, “When we find issues that bring facilities out of compliance with the AWA regulations, we work hard to bring them back into compliance as quickly as possible.”
Nonprofit’s name change
Carr has changed the name of her nonprofit to Because We Matter Exotic Rescue to distance herself from the previous operation.
But she hasn’t been able to get far away from her dad. Coleburn opened Northwest Wildlife Sanctuary in March 2023 in a 2,500-square-foot building next to Deception Pass State Park.
It’s about 20 minutes away from Predators of the Heart.
He said he lives in a 7-by-7-foot room inside a converted sports bar that houses 60 species, including sloths, otters, kinkajous and coatimundis. Coleburn said his two wolf dogs live in an enclosure outside.
He charges $149 per person for 90-minute tours. The website says Northwest Wildlife Sanctuary is licensed and inspected by the USDA, but so far the business is not listed in the agency’s database of sanctioned exhibitors.
Carr said it has been difficult to escape Coleburn’s shadow.
“I’m not my dad,” she said. “I’m tired of being held responsible for his actions.”
The sentiment doesn’t appease Kozera, who got a $50,000 settlement from the nonprofit’s insurance company after losing her dog that she buried among cedars and blackberry brambles.
The uneasiness over the 2021 incident continues to haunt her with a 6-year-old daughter and new dog playing in the yard.
“It’s always in the back of my mind, ‘Is it going to happen again?’” Kozera said. “Is today the day my other dog is taken?”
Elliott Almond is a regular Outdoors contributor to Cascadia Daily News.
A previous version of this story did not state the correct status of the 2015 lawsuit, the case was dismissed on procedural grounds for failure to prosecute. The story was updated to reflect this change at 11:28 a.m. on Oct. 23, 2024. Cascadia Daily News regrets the error.
