Ontario man who raised a pack of wolf-dogs worries government will euthanize them
When a friend asked for help to build a fenced home for his dogs, Bryton Bongard made a deal: he would lend a hand in exchange for several puppies.
That is how he ended up with what is now a pack of 16 strong, black and grey wolf-dog hybrids he calls his “babies.”
The wolf-dogs that live in his backyard enclosure have never harmed anyone, Bongard said, nor have any neighbours complained since he brought the animals to his rural property in Wahnapitae, Ont., about 50 kilometres north of Sudbury, four years ago.
But the provincial government is set to seize them anyway, he said, because it is against the law to keep wildlife native to Ontario as pets or in captivity, with some exceptions for places like zoos and rehabilitation facilities.
“I’ve spent their entire lives with them … they’re just my babies, and they are basically my family at this point,” Bongard said in a recent interview.
“And it would be devastating for me to look out my window one day and not have them there.”
Bongard is prepared to surrender the pack to the Ministry of Natural Resources, but he desperately wants an answer to a question he says the province has so far refused to address: What fate awaits the wolf-dogs after they are taken from him next month?
While the government hasn’t explicitly said the wolf-dogs will be euthanized, it has told Bongard that if a sanctuary for the animals can’t be found, one last solution is that “the dogs have to be disposed of,” he said.
The ministry said it cannot provide specific details because the case is still active.
“In general, it’s against the law to keep wild animals from Ontario as pets or to hold them in captivity,” it said in a statement, noting some exceptions under the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act.
“The government is committed to ensuring wildlife in captivity are treated with care and respect,” it said.
Bongard said the enclosure he built cost him around $35,000. The fence around nearly 8,000 square metres of land is roughly eight feet tall, with dig-proof aprons buried three feet underground to make sure the wolf-dogs don’t escape. The animals also have a cabin equipped with air-conditioning and a heater.
A butcher by trade, Bongard said he brings lots of meat scraps from work. The cost of feeding the pack varies between $60 and $200 weekly, depending on the season.
Get daily National news
Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.
His pets are smarter, bigger and very shy compared to dogs, Bongard said.
“They do bark and they do howl. But it sounds more like a choppy husky howl than it does an actual wolf.”
He said wolf-dogs can sometimes get destructive when they get bored, so he and his wife are playing and engaging with them every day.
Bongard said his wife – who is “mom” to the wolf-dogs – is even more heartbroken about the situation.
More than 600 people have signed an online petition calling on the government to leave the wolf-dogs under the family’s care.
“These animals have done nothing wrong — they are loved, well cared for and live with competent owners who provide them with excellent treatment, proper shelter and affection,” it reads.
The petition drew controversy after it was posted on the Wahnapitae community Facebook page. While some residents voiced support for Bongard, others raised safety concerns.
Bongard has downplayed those concerns, saying his dogs have never breached the fence. Even if they did escape, he said, they would steer clear of humans because they’re afraid of strangers.
“You have a better chance of getting struck by lightning or a vending machine falling on you than you do one of my dogs attacking you,” he said.
Bongard said he’s made several suggestions to the government in an effort to save the pack, including donating his current enclosure to a conservation group or buying more land to turn it into a conservation area.
However, he said the ministry has refused to engage in meaningful conversation.
Bongard’s troubles stared about a year ago, after firefighters showed up at his property when he had a bonfire.
“They asked me about why I had wolves in my backyard,” he said.
Local bylaw officers and ministry officials then got involved, visiting the site several times, including to do DNA tests on the animals, he said.
The government also seized nine wolf-dogs from Bongard’s friend who had given him the puppies in 2021. All were placed at a sanctuary in Alberta, but Bongard fears his own dogs won’t be able to find a home.
There are few sanctuaries for such animals in Canada and far fewer in Ontario – and they are often at capacity.
Kerry Bowman, an assistant professor at the University of Toronto’s school of environment, said while the exact number of wolf-dog hybrids is unknown, it could be extremely high in North America and some parts of Europe.
“Ethically, I would argue that breeding them is very, very problematic,” he said, adding that the “romanticization” of wolves in television and media has played a significant role in creating the problem.
“There’s a demand for them. They’re considered quite novel.”
Wolf-dogs are very different from dogs and keeping them as pets is not good for the animals and is unsafe for humans, Bowman said.
“There’s always a risk with wolf-dogs, even if they can be very gentle and very loving, that the behaviour could change,” he said, adding that such canines have harmed humans and pets in some cases.
Releasing them into the wild isn’t ideal because they lack wolves’ full hunting and survival skills, Bowman said. The wolf-dogs can also “weaken” the gene pool of natural wolves through interbreeding.
Still, Bowman said the case of Bongard’s pets “needs to be handled far more carefully than it has been so far,” as Canada is among the countries that are often too quick to turn to animal euthanasia.
There are many more sanctuaries for wolf-dogs in the United States and Bowman said while he doesn’t know the rules around transferring animals across the border, the owner and the government should look into it.
Bongard said he knows he broke the law and he accepts the consequences, but he is speaking out to save his animals – and to educate others about adopting “cute” wolf-dog puppies.
“When they reach maturity, which is around two years old, their personality flips,” he warned.
“Whereas one day it’s cute and fluffy, and the next day it’s eating your couch.”
The majority of post-secondary students in Ontario are stressed about their finances heading into the school year, a new survey found.
The survey from TD Bank, which collected data from post-secondary students across the country, found that 92 per cent of all respondents in Ontario are stressed about their finances.
“The survey was clear that our students are experiencing a lot of stress, which is a bit unique from previous generations because of the multitude of factors that are just hypersensitive at this point, with higher unemployment, higher cost of living, higher tuition,” says Joe Moghaizel, vice-president of everyday advice journey at TD.
The survey found that while 78 per cent of Ontario parents believe their child has experienced financial stress in the past three months, that figure was well below the actual number of 92 per cent.
“What’s interesting is the amount of pressure and stress that they’re currently facing and feeling, and the disconnect between what their parents believe they’re experiencing,” Moghaizel says. “Parents were not aware of the amount of stress that the students are feeling.”
Moghaizel pointed to a number of things leading to this financial pressure, including the high cost of living and high rate of unemployment among young people in a difficult job market, leading to many students to have what he called a volatile income.
Get breaking National news
For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.
The survey also found that Ontario had the highest percentage of students stressed about tuition costs at 35 per cent, compared with an average of 26 per cent in other provinces.
The government of Canada estimates it will take almost 10 years for the average student to pay off their student loans and the total student loan debt in Canada surpassed $23.5 billion in 2022.
“You go back to over two decades ago, when I was in school, the financial pressures that students deal with now are significantly higher because tuition is a lot more expensive and the cost of living is more expensive, and inflation has really taken a bite at students,” Moghaizel says.
Another key takeaway from the survey was that 36 per cent of all respondents found that social spending stressed them out the most.
Moghaizel says the social pressure speaks to the online environment that students find themselves in today, where everything they do is shared online.
“They all feel the pressure to spend and keep up, which, again, it’s not too dissimilar from other age groups and we’re keeping up with the Joneses and just keeping up with the spending habit of your circle creates a bit of pressure,” he says.
Moghaizel says this can leave post-secondary students feeling ill-equipped to manage their finances better.
Despite the concern, Moghaizel hopes this information is not discouraging to students and is an opportunity to start establishing good financial habits early in life.
He said that with societal pressures, it’s good for students to understand their needs versus their wants, and focus on prioritizing the necessities. Moghaizel says that through tracking their spending, students can see where all of their money is going.
“We want to make sure that we’re equipping students with the right understanding of financial knowledge for the products and services,” Moghaizel says.
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
A Canadian man has pleaded guilty to illegally photographing classified U.S. defence facilities at the Space Force military base in Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Xiao Guang Pan, 71, of Brampton, Ont., pleaded guilty to three counts of unlawful photographing of military installations without authorization on three separate days in early January.
A U.S. District Court in Florida judge put Pan on probation for 12 months and immediately ordered him deported to Canada by U.S. Immigration and Citizenship Enforcement (ICE) officers under the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act, citing his violations of American espionage laws.
Pan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A U.S. Department of Justice official was unsure about where Pan is in the ICE deportation process.
Pan’s guilty plea and deportation come as anxiety grows among U.S. lawmakers and ordinary Americans about hundreds of unidentified drones flying over sensitive American military bases amid concerns about foreign surveillance and spying.
A copy of Pan’s plea agreement reveals a stark contrast between what Pan said he was doing in Florida in January, when he was stopped by police, versus what U.S. federal agents actually found on his drone, phone and storage devices after seizing them.
On an artist biography page published by the Brampton Arts Organization, Pan stated he was born in China in 1953, immigrated to Canada in 2001 and has lived in Brampton since 2003.
Pan worked as a Best Buy Canada technician for 18 years until retirement in 2022, the biography adds.
Pan entered U.S. via Detroit
Pan entered the U.S. on a tourist visa at the Ambassador’s Bridge in Detroit, Mich., on or about Nov. 2, 2024. The court documents don’t suggest what Pan was doing or where Pan travelled in November and December.
The retiree was charged by summons on Feb. 11 after the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) detected drone activity near the Space Force Base and called in law enforcement on Jan. 7.
Brevard County Sheriffs responded. They saw Pan operating a DJI Mavic Pro 3 unmanned drone quadcopter from a parking lot in Port Canaveral and learned he’d been in the area for three days.
The local officers then tipped federal law enforcement agencies.
Federal agents caught the Brampton resident using his powerful unmanned drone and a separate camera with telephoto lenses to photograph and video classified military facilities and equipment near the Space Force base on Jan. 5, 6 and 7, without the base commander’s prior authorization as required under U.S. law.
Get breaking National news
For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.
According to a statement of facts found in the plea agreement, which Pan signed and initialled on every page, U.S. federal agents interviewed him twice – no dates were given – and asked the Canadian what he was doing with the drone.
They also warned him: lying to federal agents is a federal crime in the U.S.
“Pan told the agents that he had flown his drone to take pictures of the beauty of nature, the sunrise, and the cruise ship port. He stated that he had not seen any launch pads and that he did not know that he was near a military installation,” the plea deal states.
Pan voluntarily submitted his devices to U.S. agents for a forensic data extraction.
That’s when the investigators found more than sunrises, nature and cruise ship videos.
The data showed Pan had flown his drone nine times and taken 1,919 photographs and videos during his three-day Florida visit, the plea deal states.
Of those 1,919 photos and videos, 243 photographs and 13 videos showed specific images of Space Force base military infrastructure and launch facilities, including fuel and munitions storage facilities, security checkpoints, and a Navy submarine platform, according to the plea agreement.
On Jan. 6, his second day of flying the drone quadcopter, Pan took nine videos and 166 photographs of Space Force installations.
This time, he launched his drone from a location several miles closer to the base; his photographs and videos captured the same military infrastructure as on Jan. 5, but in higher quality and from different angles, according to the plea agreement.
Pan also captured images and videos of mission control infrastructure and fuel and munitions facilities, including a photograph of a Space Launch Complex and payload processing facilities operated by two defence contractors.
On the third day of his drone flying, and before he was encountered by law enforcement, Pan recorded two more videos and took 56 photos.
Day 3 images included security checkpoints
His Day 3 images and videos showed roads, power distribution infrastructure, security checkpoints, mission control infrastructure, national security space launch infrastructure, fuel and munitions storage, and naval infrastructure, the plea agreement states.
After police stopped Pan on Jan. 7, federal agents interviewed him twice.
During those interviews, Pan was warned that lying to agents is a federal crime. He did so anyway, the plea deal suggests.
In addition to telling agents he flew his drone to record nature, sunrises, and cruise ships and didn’t know he was near a military base, Pan said his drone sends alerts and warnings to his handset and he received no alerts or warnings, the plea deal adds.
Investigators recovered flight log data from Pan’s quadcopter. It showed that on all three days he flew, the drone logged several alerts and sent operator messages about altitude and FAA airspace violations.
On Pan’s cell phone, agents also found several screenshots he created, including several Google Maps satellite overviews of Cape Canaveral. One screenshot taken Jan. 7 while Pan was at his drone launch location, prominently displayed the words “Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.”
Pan surrendered his $5,000 quadcopter
Pan was charged in February after a multi-agency probe led by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Homeland Security, and the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations.
Pan surrendered his $5,000 quadcopter, control equipment and storage devices that housed his videos and photos to the U.S. authorities.
He is also banned from returning to the U.S. without prior consent from the Secretary of the Homeland Security department.
TORONTO – An old bat was a difference-maker for the Toronto Blue Jays in a wild 9-8 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday night.
Ty France sparked an eighth-inning rally with a solo homer and Addison Barger emerged from a 2-for-30 slump with a two-run double to help the Blue Jays to their AL-best 40th comeback win of the year.
Barger said France “randomly decided” to use one of his old bats from the cage before his pinch-hit appearance.
“I haven’t seen the bat since last year and he had a homer with it,” Barger said. “And I was like, ‘Oh shoot, I’m going to use that.’ And it worked.”
Barger lined a slider from Michael Tonkin (2-1) off the top of the wall in right field to bring home Alejandro Kirk with the tying run and George Springer from first base with the go-ahead run.
Seranthony Dominguez (3-4) got two outs in the eighth inning for the win and closer Jeff Hoffman worked the ninth for his 29th save as Toronto (78-56) took the rubber game of the three-game series.
Related Videos
Toronto improved its record at Rogers Centre to 44-22, the best home mark in Major League Baseball at the end of the game.
Get breaking National news
For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.
Barger became a regular in the lineup early in the season after providing consistent pop at the plate. Despite his struggles in recent weeks, he remains unfazed by late-game pressure.
With runners in scoring position in the seventh inning or later this season, Barger is hitting .389 with a 1.161 OPS (on-base plus slugging).
“Addy’s got talent,” said Blue Jays manager John Schneider. “He can do that. We’ve seen him do that, we’ve seen him hit home runs.
“I think it’s just the natural course of the season for a young guy and I think he’s navigating it pretty well.”
On the mound, Schneider went right back to Hoffman a night after he gave up two homers and blew his seventh save of the season.
“It’s like a quarterback throwing an interception,” Schneider said. “You’ve got to have a short memory and you’ve got to move on to the next thing. And you know, Hoff, like everybody else on this team, they move on to the next thing.”
The game had eight solo homers — four from each team — and Toronto clawed back from three deficits before taking its first lead in the eighth.
Only the Los Angeles Dodgers (41) have had more comeback wins.
“These guys do not quit,” Schneider said. “They do not give a (crap) who they’re playing against. They don’t care what the situation is. I love it.”
Andres Gimenez and Davis Schneider, with a pair, also went deep for Toronto. Byron Buxton, with two, Luke Keaschall and Brooks Lee homered for the Twins (60-73).
Toronto starter Eric Lauer allowed six earned runs and 10 hits over 4 2/3 innings. He had four strikeouts.
Minnesota starter Simeon Woods Richardson gave up five earned runs and five hits over 3 2/3 frames. He walked a pair and fanned two.
Toronto maintained its four-game lead on Boston in the American League East Division standings. The Red Sox edged Baltimore 3-2.
The Blue Jays will continue their six-game homestand Friday night against the MLB-leading Milwaukee Brewers. Shane Bieber (1-0, 1.50 earned-run average) is tabbed to start for Toronto.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 27, 2025.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
-
Uncategorized3 months agoShop Proud, Eat Proud, Be Proud — Ottawa Canada Day Market This June 28th
-
3 months agoCanada’s world junior trial saw juries tossed, intense testimony. Here’s a recap
-
2 months agoRing of Fire road to bring prosperity to First Nation, problems for caribou: report
-
2 months agoMeasles circulating in northeastern B.C. community, health officials warn
-
3 months agoAnishinabek Nation chief says he briefed Ontario police on protests against Bill 5
-
2 months agoFormer major leaguer, Jays doctor Ron Taylor dies
-
2 months agoJagmeet Singh apologizes for attending Kendrick Lamar concert after Drake calls him out
-
2 months agoDreaming of a lakeside cottage but can’t afford it? Co-ownership could open that door