Cinnamon, a wolf-hybrid, was recently brought to the Humane Society of Central Arizona (HSCAZ) . Time was running out for this 5-year-old mixed breed canine before a wolf rescue sanctuary agreed to take him in.
By Mitzi Brabb
Gazette/Connection Correspondent
Throughout history the wolf has been an admired symbol of strength, intelligence and power.
From Neolithic cave art to power seeking Shamans, wolves have always had a respectable place in history. The National Wildlife Federation even describes how Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were allegedly raised by wolves. Yet today, what has evolved into the feared ‘wolfdog’ has lost its place in society and is becoming a threatened breed.
Over the years, wolves became feared monsters of the wild, preying upon livestock and becoming the subjects of folklore, myths, and stories. Slowly, their nobility was transformed into that of a ferocious savage, leading to their near extinction throughout the United States, Southern Canada, and Western Europe. The once great warrior has since become a symbol of the Earth's vanishing wilderness.
Minnesota and Alaska host the largest gray wolf populations in the United States, though their species remains endangered in the rest of the continental states.
Wilderness lands are essential for their survival, but years of unregulated hunting, commercial exploitation, and habitat destruction has forced these mysterious and elusive creatures to near extinction over much of their former range.
The gray wolf was viewed as a grave threat to domestic livestock and was nearly exterminated during America’s westward expansion, but the threat has since been proved more fiction than fact.
Because these animals often change their hunting ‘MO’ and tend to pursue sick animals, annual studies in the more heavily wolf populated Canadian regions have proven that less than one percent of sheep and cattle are actually killed by wolves.
The Wolf Education and Research Center in Ketchum, Idaho states, “Livestock losses to poisonous plants, diseases and poor husbandry practices are much higher. The perception of wolves as dangerous creatures stems less from truths than from cultural myths.”
During the past few decades, Arizona has played a pivotal role in saving the critically endangered Mexican grey wolves. In 1980, the United States and Mexico entered into an agreement to save this wolf subspecies and captured the five last known wild Mexican grey wolves.
A comprehensive captive breeding program was implemented to bring them back from the brink and eventually reintroduce them to their former range. Today there are more than 300 Mexican grey wolves taking part in the program.
According to the Mexican Wolf relocation program, the reintroduction campaign, which started in March 1998, began with the release of three packs into Arizona’s Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest. That forest has 2.63 million acres and runs along the Mogollon Rim and the White Mountains and extends into New Mexico.
Although the final goal for Mexican wolf recovery is a wild, self-sustaining population of at least 100 individual wolves, there may be up to 50 wild Mexican grey wolves in Arizona and New Mexico roaming free today.
While the wild wolf may be making a comeback into the natural world, another problem has resulted from captive inter-breeding of these animals.
Most wildlife officials argue that all dogs are naturally descended from wolves, however, there exists a wolf/dog hybrid or wolfdog that is struggling to find its place in society.
The domestication of wolves first occurred some 10,000 years ago in the Near East. The first documentation of intentional wolfdog breeding began in Germany in the 1920s, resulting in the Saarlooswolfhond. These hybrids, German Shepherds bred with wolves from the Urals, were used as experimental attack dogs in South Africa during apartheid.
Wolfdogs have sadly become a product of man, with no natural habitat. They have primarily been bred for profit and are now considered to be ‘exotic’ animals. They are the center of controversy throughout the world. In 1998, the USDA said that the United States has more wolfdog breeds than any other country. They made a conservative estimate that some 300,000 such animals are in captivity today.
The National Wolfdog Alliance says that 40 states effectively forbid the ownership, breeding and importation of wolfdogs. Most European nations either outlaw the animal entirely or impose restrictions on them.
Arizona is not one of the 40 states which ban wolfdogs. However, any government shelter or animal control facility in Arizona will eventually euthanize these animals, considering them to be semi-wild and unsuitable as pets to be adopted out. Also, pharmaceutical companies that provide canine rabies vaccines do not guarantee that they are effective on wolfdogs. Wolf rescue sanctuaries argue otherwise, but these dogs are destroyed after a quarantine period when turned into any facility that is not a non-kill shelter, including any Humane Society throughout the country.
Danya Leshick of Where Wolves Rescue in Surprise, AZ, said that 90 percent of dogs that are labeled wolfdogs are some sort of husky or Shepherd mix, but dogs or litters of pups are often put down if they look like a wolf or wolfdog.
“If a person says that it is a wolfdog then it will get put to sleep,” said Leshick. “This is a standard practice across the country.”
Wolfdogs have a reputation for being high-maintenance pets that require special care and attention. Proponents of wolfdogs claim that they are naturally timid and fearful of humans, but that with proper training and responsible ownership they can become good companions and are generally non-aggressive, gentle animals.
The CDC and the Humane Society of the United States state that wolfdogs rank sixth in the number of dog attack fatalities in the U.S. Between 1979 and 1998. In that 19 year span there were 14 wolf-hybrid related fatalities in the United States.
Sandy Cate, director of Adobe Mountain Wildlife Auxiliary, a division of Arizona Game and Fish, said that wolfdogs fall into a grey area since they are in fact domesticated animals.
“Our policy reads that any hybrid resulting from the cross of a wolf and a domestic dog is considered a domestic animal and not subject to the Department's jurisdiction," said Cate.
“Only wildlife species breeding with other wildlife species would be considered wild animals by our standards.”
However, that is not the standard for most government jurisdictions, which can make decisions about animals such as wolfdogs per state, city or county.
Like humans, wolves and wolfdogs are social creatures that stay with their families until death. For many that are unwanted, abused, neglected or simply misunderstood, these canine misfits never get a chance to know what it is like to be either a wolf or a dog. In most cases, they fall into a strict jurisdiction that means death by association.
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