One and the Same

You have heard the stories before, seen the commercials that all our dogs from the small to the large all come from the blood lines of wolves. It's not a story, the lineage is certainly dated and tainted with all these mixes. You can even do an Embark test and it will tell you the "wolfiness" of your pet.

Our dogs are domesticated, but they do have their prey drive, especially hunting dogs. Owners are shocked when their dog brings them a groundhog or some other present but a dog is a dog. No matter what they do, as a good pet owner you have to realize they are still 'one and the same'.

So, how can you love your dog so much but have such a distain for wolves?Is it because we were brought up to believe in the big bad wolf? Is he going to blow our house down? Is he going to eat our grandmother? Are wolves that scary? The answer is no.

However, I still do not recommend walking around the woods with a basket of hot, fresh blueberry muffins. Not that a wolf is going to come out and eat you but stupidity might, let's just have common sense. Wild animals do live in the woods and hot fresh muffins is just not the brightest idea, Ms. Riding Hood.

Wolves have been nearly wiped out of the Northeast, I say nearly but I really mean they have been wiped out. In the Northeast, Grey Wolves do not exist in the wild, there are NO confirmed sightings. Red Wolves have a population of 10-15 in North Carolina. Can you imagine, 10-15 in the world left that are wild? There are wolves that are safe in conservations, that one day may be released, being released isn't all that wonderful. Not when you have hunters, poachers who are now thinking "well, there are 16 now! Sure be nice to have one in my living room!" Not when farmers are pointing fingers at wolves blaming them for their stock going missing or being killed.

Farmers don't need proof, they don't have camera's, and I am sorry they lost their animals, I am also sorry when a lot of these farmers don't treat their animals properly. That is a whole other article, the problem here is, prove it. How many other predators are out there that are hungry and may go after this farmers sheep, chicken or calf. Depending on the location it could be a coyote, mountain lion, stray dog and so on. They cry wolf, government believes wolf, and now we don't have wolves. But there is zero proof that it was a wolf or even a canine for that matter. Perhaps farmers just need to do a better job, many don't treat their animals properly, and slaughtering is beyond cruel. Maybe just maybe pointing the finger, takes the attention away from them. Just the other week, on my community page, a women posted about a local farm she passed by, she saw a decapitated cow and the body a few feet away. She called the state police and they just told her that is how it is done, the picture was deleted (I did screen shot it) and told her to contact animal advocacy, as they deal with such horrible things. Because, this is a horrible thing, this is NOT how you slaughter an animal or leave it. Now, if law enforcement actually cared, would this farm point fingers to a wild animal? maybe.

Point is, it is an easy blame and it is time to stop. We all love our dogs so much, when we lose our dogs the pain is unbearable, their love is unconditional, their loyalty is like no other. They would do anything for you, and most would do anything for their dogs.

Why wouldn't you step up for their ancestors?

It has been recorded that the reintroduction to wolves into Yellowstone marks the wolves as a keystone species, what this means is without the wolves, the ecosystem functions at a lower level. With the wolves, the ecosystem is thriving. Imagine, what this could mean if hunting was illegal, and wolves were able to breed and thrive successfully. Imagine we were able to coexist and flourish in such a place.

Imagine that story.

Educate, sign and fight

#relistwolves #relistwolvescampaign #nywolf.org