WOLFDOG OWNER JAILED FOR CRUELTY AND NEGLECT IN FALKIRK
CONVICTED (2026) | Graham Alexander McQuet, born September 1985, with a most recent known address of Ritchie Place, Grangemouth FK3 8TE – kept starving wolfdogs in squalor and used shock collars on them.Inspector Thorburn described McQuet’s property as being “in extremely poor condition”.
She added: “McQuet was arrested following the discovery of a cannabis cultivation within the house.
“One remaining wolfdog named Bronn had a painful, inflamed wound caused by inappropriate use of his shock collar.” Video footage seized from the property showed McQuet repeatedly shocking his wolfdogs resulting in the dogs yelping in discomfort.
A cat was also found in the house in poor condition and a terrier dog was seen being attacked by the wolf dogs and in pain.
The surviving animals were placed into the care of the SSPCA.
Summoned before Falkirk Sheriff Court, McQuet was found guilty of failing to meet the needs of a dog and a total of seven wolf dogs between October 2019 and November 2022, and causing unnecessary suffering to a wolf dog found with shock collar sores.
The court heard that McQuet, who also works as a dog trainer, often left the animals ‘effectively abandoned’.
There was little clean water for the wolves, who had resorted to drinking from a leaky tap in the garden.
Prosecutor Karen Chambers said McQuet had ‘deliberately kept the animals undernourished so they looked more like wolves’.
The situation came to light after one of the wolves chewed his way through the roof of his kennel and escaped.
Concerned neighbours – who had already reported the wolves fighting and ‘horrific’ howling when McQuet wasn’t there – called the SSPCA.
One of them filmed a video from the window of her home showing a large black wolf-like animal on a shed roof.
In a second video, the wolves were whimpering and making loud, high-pitched squealing noises as if in pain.
McQuet 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.
‘I would pick up droppings daily and jet wash the garden twice a week.
They’re wolves, not dogs,’ he told the court.
Additional video footage recovered from the premises showed McQuet revealing that the wolfdogs had been transported from a Russian zoo using fraudulent passports.
Apart from Bronn, he stated the wolfdogs comprised a mix of first- and second-generation wolfdogs alongside pure Arctic Wolves, meaning they ought to have been licensed under The Dangerous Wild Animals Act, documentation.
Sheriff Craig 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.
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.’ Leaving court, McQuet refused to comment.
