Minco The Wolf-Dog Needs The Public’s Help – InkFreeNews.com

ALBION – Minco, the wolf-dog hybrid, needs the public’s help with rebuilding his shelter at Black Pine Animal Sanctuary in Albion.
After the heavy wind and storms that rocked most of northern Indiana on Sunday, Aug. 9, several trees came down, causing damage to areas of Black Pine Animal Sanctuary, including Minco’s shelter.
“One of our trees had come down in the wolf dog habitat,” said Development Manager for Black Pine Animal Sanctuary Julie Josey. “The tree ended up completely crushing the meshing on the outside of the habitat. It’s going to have to be entirely rebuilt. We know that there will be some insurance adjustments; however, just like with a used car and how things kind of depreciate … we now would like to upgrade to do some current standards that are a little bit sturdier. We know that we’re going to end up with some expenses far above and beyond what insurance might be able to cover.”
Black Pine Animal Sanctuary is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that is the only multispecies accredited sanctuary and is one of about 215 organizations in the world to be accredited with the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries. Josey stated that GFAS “not only looks at animal welfare standards, but also the way we spend money.”
“Because we are a 501(c)3 organization, we will accept whatever, and however much people would like to donate. We do have multiple additional trees on the campus that do need to be taken down … If there are any people who are with tree services that are willing to donate any of the time or materials to be able to help us with that, we would be incredibly grateful,” said Josey.
Black Pine currently has around 87 animals, a significant portion of which have outstanding medical needs. Josey stated that they “try to make sure that the money goes towards them (the animals). So, when we have things like this that are unplanned, it ends up creating a level of stress that would be nice to not have.”
“The 87 animals we have here have either been displaced, removed by law enforcement or relinquished by original owners,” stated Josey. “A lot of them have had improper diets before they came here; a lot of metabolic bone disease, a lot of arthritis, some of them have been inbred …One of the newest monkeys ended up coming to us as a pet from Indianapolis, but he had been tied to a bookcase. When the man passed away, he was there for five days, without anyone even knowing he existed … a lot of the money that goes into keeping them happy, trying to allow them to be wild animals, despite the fact they cannot be rereleased.”
Minco is no exception. Minco and his companion, Karma, were originally from Michigan. Michigan law does not allow people to own these animals, and once the state finds out that an individual has the hybrid, the person has 48 hours to relocate them or they will be euthanized. Fortunately for Minco and Karma, they arrived at Black Pine in 2022.
“Unfortunately for Minco, who is already a really high-anxiety animal, his companion passed away a couple months ago,” said Josey. “He has had a really rough go of it. He literally paces so much just because of his anxiety. His ACLs ended up wearing out, and we had a vet from the University of Michigan come in and do stem cell transplants to help that regrow. We put meshing up around his habitat to try to make him more comfortable.”
The additional trauma that Minco has endured with the destruction of his habitat and needing to be moved into a safer habitat until it can be repaired, has not been good for Minco, said Josey. The goal, is to build back the habitat “better than it was originally so, hopefully, it will be sturdier and this doesn’t happen again to him.”
Any organization or private person can donate to help the sanctuary by making monetary donations at the link here.
Black Pine will also be hosting their annual Lions, Tigers and Beer fundraiser from 6-9 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 19, where “multiple beer vendors from Kosciusko County, who will be present at that, or who have donated for a silent auction.”
Tree removal services that would like to help by providing material or labor, contact Maintenance Manager Guy Anderson at (260) 271-4589, or Josey at (260) 363-3061.
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