After a one-game trial with a wolf-like breed of dog as a live mascot, the athletics department has ended its partnership with a dog owned by RightPuppy Kennel in Salisbury. 

The University neither confirmed nor denied that allegations the National Tamaskan Club of America made against RightPuppy played a role in the decision to discontinue the partnership. But both Kevin Settineri, president of RightPuppy, and NTCA president John Bannow acknowledged the NTCA has accused RightPuppy of being a large-scale commercial dog-breeding facility, or puppy mill.

Saturday at 11:08 a.m., Bannow said he e-mailed Athletics Director Debbie Yow on behalf of his organization, the U.S affiliate of the UK-based Tamaskan Dog Register, citing concerns about the kennel’s breeding practices. He said when she responded 30 minutes later, and Yow and her department had already decided to end the trial with RightPuppy.

“I sent her a letter stating the particulars behind RightPuppy Kennel and how we felt RightPuppy was not a good representative of the Tamaskan dog breed due to [RightPuppy President Kevin] Settineri’s breeding practices,” Bannow said. “She said the school’s association with RightPuppy Kennel and the using of that dog as a mascot was on a trial basis and that they would no longer be doing that, that they would research other options. They mentioned nothing of my letter being a factor at all.”

Chris Kingston, senior associate director of athletics, contacted Settineri at approximately 10:30 p.m. Friday night about visiting the kennel the following day. Kingston said he made the two-hour drive Saturday at around noon, arriving between 2 and 2:30 p.m. to visit Settineri to inform him of the school’s decision. 

“We entered into an agreement and we did so responsibly because it was an agreement to use a Tamaskan for the trial,” Kingston said. “It gave us the option to use the live mascot that everyone saw at the Sept. 4 game for the remaining football games. Right up front, in the agreement, we had the ability to discontinue after the trial, which is what we did.”

During the visit, Kingston offered to buy the dog, according to Settineri. 

However, Kingston said he was not looking to purchase a dog from RightPuppy, but that he was actually intending to try and determine the cost of such dogs.

Settineri said he thinks the decision to discontinue the experiment with his kennel’s dog was brought on by a number of complaints made by the UK-based Tamaskan Dog Register and its U.S. affiliate, the NTCA.

“This week they inundated N.C. State with hundreds and hundreds of e-mails from the same six to seven people,” Settineri said. “They can say anything they want because there’s no way I could sue them for slander because they’re not in this country.

“Apparently the University got barraged with hate email saying things like, ‘Settineri has a puppy mill.’ John [Bannow] instituted it all and was the ringleader here because he was the one who found out about it. The bottom line is N.C. State said, ‘We don’t want to be involved.’ I don’t blame them,” Settineri said.

Bannow said he was not directly involved with any communication between the TDR and N.C. State.

“I am not too sure of who from the Tamaskan Dog Register in the UK has sent letters or not,” Bannow said. “I’m assuming that they would have sent letters, but I was not privy to who sent what to whom.”

The dog’s place on the sidelines during the football game Sept. 4 was part of the trial stage of an agreement between the University and the kennel, Kingston said. 

Settineri said the dog enjoyed itself during the Western game and fans who have met it have enjoyed their interaction with it.

“The response has been absolutely out of control about how favorable it has been,” Settineri said. “The people are like, ‘When can you bring more dogs?’ ‘This is the greatest thing ever; we’ve been waiting since 1967.’ At least 200 separate people have met the dog and they’re like, ‘This is loving, it’s great, and it looks exactly like a wolf.’ There’s nothing you could do to have a more positive experience with the animal. It was a 100 percent success.”

Kingston said the University will now take into consideration several factors and possibilities as it looks to acquire a privately owned permanent live mascot.  

“We want to figure out the best way to move forward with a live mascot,” Kingston said. “This isn’t somebody in a costume that can take a break. We want to move forward responsibly, because this is a live animal.”

For now, Kingston said a lot of decisions are still up in the air, but that the athletics department is making every effort to have a live mascot at Thursday’s game.

“We are hopeful we will have a live mascot on the sidelines Thursday as we search for a long-term live mascot,” Kingston said. “I can’t say what the live mascot will be. I think it will be a Tamaskan because I think that looks the most like what we’re trying to represent. Right now there is a goal to locate a private owner of a Tamaskan that we can make a permanent part of game day.”