Wolf-dog ordinance would limit breeding

They say the animals inhabit an impossible limbo: too wild to live among humans and too domesticated to survive in the wild.

"There are people who love wolves and want to be with wolves, but they aren't doing them any favors," said Animal Care Center veterinarian Bonnie Lilley. "We're breeding an animal to live in limboland."

The new rules would require all owners of wild-animal/dog hybrids to get a permit from the county. A condition of the permit is that the animal be surgically sterilized.

There are other requirements, including that the animal have a microchip and be kept in a fenced yard from which it cannot escape. Also, the owner cannot be a felon.

The permit would cost $10 and must be renewed every year. It would not be transferrable.

The Pima County Board of Supervisors will consider the proposed ordinance today.

Until now, owners of wolf-dog hybrids did not need any permits. The main purpose of dog licenses is to prove dogs have received the rabies vaccine, and rabies vaccines have not been proven to be effective in wolf-dog hybrids. There have been at least three cases nationwide in which vaccinated wolf-dog hybrids contracted rabies, Lilley said.

The goal of the wolf-dog hybrid permit is different — to stop the breeding of more animals.

"We need to stop this situation," said Lilley, who called the ordinance "a long time coming." "We're breeding these animals for an early death."

The problem with wolf-dog hybrids is not so much that they are aggressive but that they are wild, Lilley said. Breeders often take them from their mothers at a very young age and even bottle-feed them in an attempt to socialize them to people, but they remain much more likely to bite out of fear than dogs. Small children and other pets also can trigger their predator instincts.

Wolf-dog hybrids are difficult to contain, Lilley said. They can dig deep tunnels, even through wood floors. They can jump 10 feet in the air from a standing position. They cannot be left alone; they don't deal well with strangers; and they don't travel well in cars.

Lilley said one hybrid tracked its owner down at a supermarket five miles from the house.

Lilley recommends that anyone who thinks they want one spend time with the animals at a sanctuary to see if they really could handle one at their home.

She said many of the animals come to animal care because their owners turn them over, claiming they found them as strays.

Animal control officials said they don't know how many wolf-dog hybrids there are in Pima County. The Animal Care Center gets between 18 and 36 animals a year, with last year marking a record after 10 animals were seized from one owner. The Humane Society sees about one wolf-dog hybrid a year.

Officials from both organizations said they try to find sanctuaries to take the animals, but the few sanctuaries that exist usually are full. Hybrids often are euthanized.

"It's really dismal," said Linda Searles of the Southwest Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Foundation, of the prospects for wolf-dog hybrids.

The Scottsdale sanctuary took in the 10 hybrids taken from one home in Pima County, but it has room for no more. Its main mission is to rescue native wildlife, not shelter hybrids. The day they brought the 10 animals from Pima County, Searles saw three ads in the classified section for wolf-dog hybrid puppies.

"They're beautiful animals," Searles said. "People think they're going to look like a wolf and act like a dog. They end up living out their lives on chains in misery. Or people dump them thinking they'll revert to the wild."

Searles said the ordinance is a good idea.

"It's certainly going to make people more aware, and those people who do have them will be more responsible," she said.

The city considered a much stricter ordinance back in 1999, but no new rules were adopted.

Pat Hubbard, the Humane Society's director of operations, chaired the task force that came up with that ordinance. She said it ultimately foundered over the difficulty of distinguishing hybrids from dogs.

"It's very, very difficult to prove an animal is a wolf hybrid," she said. "What if we say it's a wolf hybrid, and the owner says it's a husky-German shepherd mix?"

Even DNA tests can be inconclusive because there is so little genetic difference between a dog and a wolf. Lilley said the main indicators are the animal's behavior and gait, not its appearance.

Under the proposed county ordinance, if an animal control officer believes an animal is a hybrid, the onus is on the owner to demonstrate that it isn't.