J. D. "Donnie" McFaul

"Donnie" McFaul bred Seppala Siberians in Maniwaki, Quebec, for about twenty years. He was employed as a game warden by the Maniwaki Fish and Game Club and used his dogs primarily for winter patrol purposes in the Desert River area. McFaul started with mongrels but quickly realised the desirability of dogs specially adapted to the work. Backed and funded by C. S. MacLean, a wealthy manufacturer and member of the club, McFaul started his Gatineau Kennels with three purebred Siberian Huskies from the Foxstand Kennels of William L. Shearer III in Boston, Massachusetts.

In 1950 McFaul acquired the remaining Harry R. Wheeler dogs together with the Seppala Kennels name when Wheeler gave up kennelling due to business pressures. Donnie sold his original Gatineau stock in favour of the pure Seppala Wheeler dogs. He immediately re-sold seven long-coated Wheeler dogs to Shearer.

In 1963 McFaul retired and ceased breeding activities. He sold his remaining Seppalas to Earl F. Norris of Alaska, keeping only the ten-year-old Zaza of Seppala, who lived to 17 years of age. McFaul was an intensely private and dour person. Very little personal information about him remains. He raced his dogs in eastern Ontario and Quebec but never ran large teams and often ran with a single lead. His breeding was crucial to the preservation of Seppalas through the 1950s and 1960s and his retirement very nearly spelled the end of the strain.