Steakhouse donates 500 pounds of meat scraps to wolfdog sanctuary

Every dog owner knows that tossing them a scrap of food is a quick way to elicit happiness — obvious by a wagging tail and cheerful yelp.

And if those scraps were Alberta prime, grass-fed beef? Or even Wagyu? Heaven.

That's what life has been like for the canines at the Yamnuska Wolfdog Sanctuary in Cochrane, because a Calgary steakhouse has been donating its scraps to keep them well fed.

Stephen Deere, owner of Modern Steak, Modern Burger and Modern Ocean, was inspired to give away what his restaurants can't use after seeing that the dog sanctuary was asking for food donations.

"I sat with our chefs and said, 'You know how much we love dogs and animals … I would love to start collecting all of our beef trim and scraps and stuff that we can't use in the restaurant, and donate it,'" Deere said.

"So we saved up for basically three months, and we were able to donate 500 pounds (227 kg) of Alberta beef to these wolves."

An emotional experience

A wolfdog is produced by mating a domestic dog with a grey wolf, eastern wolf, red wolf or Ethiopian wolf. 

The Yamnuska Wolfdog Sanctuary houses 25 permanent wolfdogs, 10 ambassador wolfdogs and any number of wolfdogs available for adoption, according to its website.

It is located about 35 kilometres northwest of Calgary, covers about a hectare and is fenced in with roomy individual enclosures that hold up to three animals.

The environment is entirely natural with native trees and grasses.

And according to Deere, visiting the sanctuary to meet the wolfdogs can be very moving.

"It's almost like a little bit of an emotional experience," Deere said. 

"To see them being treated so well, and these massive large enclosures, by people that really care.… It's one of those things that, you know, if you do something good, it makes you feel good."

Cartilage, bones and tendons

But what does a wolfdog eat, and how do you satisfy its appetite?

Mostly they consume meat that is supplemented with dog food, Deere said, and they aren't thrilled by a routine menu.

"[The staff] said they can be picky. They don't like eating the same thing all the time," Deere said.

"And I said, 'Well, that's fantastic … they're going to have all these great different flavours of beef to have for the next little bit.'"

Those flavours include Wagyu and grass-fed Alberta beef.

And it also includes parts of the cattle that aren't used in a steakhouse — cartilage, bones and tendons, for instance.

"We obviously don't use anything [like that] in the steakhouse. That is a perfect diet for the animals," Deere said. 

Combating food waste 

Deere's objective is to maintain the donation long enough so that it becomes routine for his restaurants.

"We're making a commitment that we can try to do a quarterly donation. So every three months, whatever we have will be donated to the sanctuary," he said.

The even bigger hope, Deere said, is to get other restaurants to participate.

"We talked to a bunch of our other restaurateurs and chefs and … said this is something so easy, because it also is another form of combating food waste," Deere said. 

"So if you have stuff that can be donated, we've encouraged everyone that's kind of been our peer group and around us to do the same thing."

With files from The Canadian Press and the Calgary Eyeopener.