Very upseting...our wolves are hunting dogs
 . Our local wolf pack (named the Elmendorf pack) has taken to stalking and killing pet dogs. This is very weird and unusual....small dogs being taken is relatively common, but this is large dogs, and in one case, the owner was RIGHT there! (she was walking her lab off lead in a wooded area).
This has been happening a lot further north this winter (Fairbanks) and in at least one case there, the wolves turned out to have rabies. 
These last few, though have been in Eagle River (where I live), and by a group of wolves that we see in our neighborhood at times. My dogs will not be walked off lead any time soon, or even allowed out in our fenced yard unattended. |
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| I know..............we were JUST talking about this. Couldn't believe all the news on it and how CLOSE they really were. Usually I expect to hear these things are miles away and not in our backyard! |
| I guess they haven't vacinated all wolves in North America. I know when they relocate them they do...but rabid wolves are really scary. What do they plan to do about this???? |
| Oh wonderful. We have an introduced pack in SW part of state. Locals are not happy and now constructing wolf proof shelters for their kids waiting for school buses. News of rabies in the northern packs will further fuel residents' hatred.
No more free roam dogs and indeed back yards are no longer safe. |
| Bear said he'll come up to take care of the problem. |
| That is not good. I would not be letting my dogs (or kids) outside without close supervision.
Hard to blame the wolves - they are just hungry. We have the same trouble with coyotes here. They actually came up on one our friend's sidewalk and got their pet cat. Barry was amazed - then took action. Can't say I blame him - they have 3 little kids - age 5 and under. |
| A few coyotes have been in town, people leaving dog food outside and they are eating it, but they are not scared and now they are going after cats and small dogs. They are now hanging out by the schools and they have been chased out of town 3 times but keep coming back, they are going to shoot them next before they go after the kids. |
| Yeah, friend lost her Yorkie to a coyote.....you never want to live on a golf course......here if it's not the coyotes, it's the bears...........there are mtn lions as well, but so far they've stayed in rural home areas in forests.
We have coyotes about 2 blocks away along the irrigation ditch. Coming home at night I know those GSDxhuskies I see in my head lights are really coyotes,  |
Stay safe! I hope you and your faimly and 4 legged babies stay safe! A few years ago we had a mtn. lion/cougar kill one of our female heelers and possibly our male catahoula. There was a cougar spotted a few miles from our farm just shortly after that, DRN suggested that's what it was. I hope you guys stay safe! Even since then, our 4 legged babies are either inside, in the barn or in the kennels. I live on a farm in the middle of no where, but still have hunters and other wild animals, and I'm way over protective of my babies!!  |
SheepieBoss wrote: Oh wonderful. We have an introduced pack in SW part of state. Locals are not happy and now constructing wolf proof shelters for their kids waiting for school buses. News of rabies in the northern packs will further fuel residents' hatred.
I really cant emphasis enough how weird and unusual this is . I've lived in Alaska all my life, and here in Eagle River for 12 years, and Ive never heard of another incident like it . People up here know not to leave small dogs unattended outside because all sorts of critters will see them as food...but big dogs are normally safe. Plus, I have NEVER heard of a healthy (non-rabid) wolf attacking a person. I actually love these particular wolves...I've listened to them sing so many times...and seeing them actually EATING a dog (yes, they showed that on the news!) upset me very much.
Hopefully your introduced pack has been vaccinated, SheepieBoss. Up here, Rabies does break out epidemically every once in a while. Usually in the Bush. Cute as they are, Im terrified of foxes, because rabies is so common in them  |
| How scary! |
| Oh My how scary
You would have to be on guard even when they do go outside to potty. Wonder what made them be like that? Is there a shortage of food in the wild at the moment? Seems strange |
| I'm amazed and yes I agree as this behavior of wolves is unheard of.
Although wolves are viewed in such negative terms by many, there's never been a documented case of a wolf attacking a person. Ever! Small farm animals or small dogs - yes, but as you say Raven to attack a big dog is unheard of and very very unusual. In the wild, wolves hunt daily in packs and while their hunts are only 5 % successful during the winter when they go after large animals such a moose - it feeds them for many days. I think they must be extremely hungry and that their natural prey is very scarce. We know what's happening with the polar bears and now this news makes me fear for the wolves as well, as it's always the animals on the top of the food chain that dissapear first , then is followed by the rest. I feel for that woman who lost her Lab and the people who are now fearful and rightly so of their dogs. Stay safe! Marianne |
I just watched the news again tonight, and the current theory seems to be "habituation"....and that the "urban" packs have gotten too used to people and dogs, and are losing their natural caution.  |
| Oh My... so upsetting! |
| What is an introduced pack? Wolves that have been deliberately set loose in an area that previously didn't have wolves?
And if so, what Einstein decided this would be a good idea? (no disrespect to Zoe's Einy). |
| Yes, Paula, that is exactly what an introduced pack is. They do it, supposedly, to help balance out the natural order in areas where its been skewed for various reasons. We had coyotes introduced here a few years ago and in our mountains they brought in elk. |
| Sounds like they may have to shoot a few wolves to reintroduce their fear of man. It's sad though, because they mate for life and killing one's mate would be a tragedy. |
wendy58 wrote: Sounds like they may have to shoot a few wolves to reintroduce their fear of man. It's sad though, because they mate for life and killing one's mate would be a tragedy.
I dont think they would have to go that far. tranquillizer darts and rabies vaccines are what I'd like to see!
An interesting bit of news I saw was that in Fairbanks, the school district is going to start teaching "wolf safety" along side "bear safety" in school. Bear safety was a normal part of school for me, and Im curious now what they are teaching kids to do different if they encounter wolves . Got me thinking...wouldn't it be cool if in kindergarten they taught kids about how to behave around dogs?  |
| If the wolf had rabies that explains everything. First of all, they can't survive alone without their pack and if one gets sick they either kill it or leave it - depending on the disease.
We had a lot of wolves in the Carpathian Basin (Hungary, Transylvania, Slovakia, etc.) in the early 1900. When wolves started to attack bigger animals such as pigs and cows it turned out that they all had rabies. Be safe! |
| Believe it or not, this has gotten scarier
I just heard that while we were gone in Fairbanks, a group of 3 women walking their dogs ON LEAD in the same area, were attacked by a group of 8 wolves. The women all had pepper spray, and were able (barely) to fight off the wolves...  All of the dogs were fairly large, and the one who was hurt the worst (all will live  ) was an American Bulldog. Amazingly enough, the women came away without a scratch .
The current theory for why this is happening has changed...biologists now think that a big shake up in the pack's structure (new pack leader) is what set this off. Firecrackers and rubber bullets are being used to try to make them fearful of people again. Yikes....sorry dogs, no walkies for a while!  |
| That's scary. It's all I could think about as Mr. J told me he's going cross country skiing in a wooded eagle river area tomorrow. It'll just be him and his friend. Of course they're not worried though. |
| Dynamite and real bullets might be in order for a X-country skiing adventure. |
| SO WEIRD............. Found out today it was MY FRIEND (and two of her friends) that was attacked by wolves (the story that was told here).
Just talked to her today. She had been running in the same place for 2 years. Her husband bought her pepper spray right before he deployed, but that was in case TWO-legged animals tried attacking her. Anyway, she never used it but due to the wolf encounters, she had coincidently brought it out that day. The girls were 3/4th of the way finished with their run when two wolves came out. Two of the dogs (husky and lab) were scared to death but her third dog (all on leashes) which I believe may be a pitbull mix charged for them. Of course her heart went crazy because all she could think about was "oh my gosh, my dog is going to die. oh my gosh... bla bla bla" ...guess she instinctively knew it was the dogs they were after. After forcing one of her friends to let go of the pepper spray that she was doing nothing with, she grabbed it, looked directly in their eyes and aimed at both of them. They immediately ran off and then a total of 8 came out. They spent TEN MINUTES FIGHTING THEM OFF. She could tell they were trying to circle them in because they attempted to stand around them spread out, but they kept screaming (which she said was disturbing to them and made them back up each time), and standing her ground ...which on the news, they said to not come off scared. They backed up until they got to the gate where two people were who instead of asking if they were okay..... immediately started to tell them how stupid they were and that their dogs should have been eaten. She was so distraught, she immediately told them off while shaking nonstop. I told her while what they said may have been true with the news (no word on attacks at that point), I can't name 1 person here who hasn't done something stupid outside. ...from hiking in popular public areas where bears are, to walking w/o some sort of spray/protection, to leaving their trash out (illegally) w/o a lid or overnight. She spent four days super sick and not being able to do anything outside of her bed due to how traumatized she was. This girl grew up hunting and could EASILY stand next to Madonna (for being tone/muscles), so I think it was almost a good thing she was there with her two friends running that day. They would have lost their two dogs w/o her and may have been bit themselves. The wildlife trooper person told her that once wolves encounter humans, each encounter after that.... they become braver and are more likely to attack you since you usually don't come off as a threat. She said, "you know how they say they're more afraid of you than you are of them? ........well, let me tell you that wasn't the case." ...which may be because there were so many. Her husband bought her a gun to go running with now, and she obviously doesn't run in the same place. She showed me the news article with her picture, and I couldn't believe it. Her garmin watch which tracks her GPS helps tell the story too b/c it shows every minute of what happened online. ...like where she stood still for 10 minutes, how slow and where she walked backwards, where she sprinted, etc... |
| Holy Crap!
I cant believe it was somebody you know! Talk about a small world....or rather, small town, I guess!
Thank goodness your friend was such a tough chic! |
| This is amazing. I'm so shocked by this! I have always had coyotes around and wolf packs further out - never heard of ANYthing like this. Completely shocking and scary. Especially with your personal connection, Jo. Wow - definitely weird. Get some Rhodesians up there . . . |
| I forgot to mention that a wolf got ahold of her dog's scrotum, but she said her dog got SO MANY more bites into the two wolves than something her dog is now recovered from. |
| HERE IS AN IDEA, WHEN THE EXPERTS SAY DO NOT GO THERE WITH YOUR DOG. DO NOT GO THERE WITH YOUR DOG. There have been warnings about these wolves for about three months. One of the first dogs attacked was over 30 yards away from it's people. They said that they could barely see the dog when it happened. The state put put a stay off the right aways because of bears and wolves in October. At least the wolves have distracted from the news that some of the bears are still roaming the Eagle River valley.
Once the snow gets deeper the wolves and the bears will move on. Then people will talk about the eagles taking poodles. Maybe they will talk about the rabies that they have found outside of Nome. There is something to be frightedned by. Alaska is not know for rabies, fleas, heart worms, or ticks. But they are creeping closer and closer. Then there is the parvo explotion that has hit the Anchorage area. The center of this parvo is the animals shelter. What this really means is that when the state voltes again the arial wolf hunting will pass and the state will be happy. I have lived in Alaska over 50 years, and about every 15 years this type of thing happens. In the late 70s there were several dog teams attacked and eaten in the Fairbanks area mountains. |
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