FUR-EVER WILD WOLVES, ARE THEY REALLY WOLF DOGS OR ARE THEY THE PROTECTED GRAY WOLF?

As people who have been following this story may know the Animal Legal Defense Fund filed a 60 day notice of intent to sue Terri Petter, owner of the Fur-Ever Wild fur farm, aka Wolves Woods & Wildlife back in December 2015.  You can read the letter from the Animal Legal Defense Fund HERE.

The purpose of their notice was to stop Terri Petter from violating the law by killing a species that is listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act and in response to that notice Terri Petter filed an affidavit stating that her wolves are in fact hybrid (wolf dogs) and not gray wolves so she wasn't violating the ESA.

http://www.citypages.com/news/wildlife-petting-zoo-turns-furrier-slaughterhouse-when-nobodys-watching-8265904

Here is the issue with that… if she isn't slaughtering anything, why the response about hybrid wolf dogs? Anyway… moving on.

Back in April 2015 a posting appeared on the Fur-Ever Wild Facebook page, presumably from Terri Petter, that stated Luna, the wolf at the Intl. Wolf Center, is one of her wolves.  I posted about this last year > HERE and below is a screenshot of that public post on the Fur-Ever Wild FB page.

When I read the above post I immediately contact the International Wolf Center.  The IWC and I are not the best of friends (you'll notice that if you've read prior posts) but buying a wolf from a fur farmer was just lower than I thought they'd be willing to go so I emailed Lori, the Wolf Curator at the IWC and below is her response:

Following that email I did some more digging and I found out who the broker was that sold Terri's wolf to the IWC under false pretense but I am not going to disclose that info here… yet.

So… you have Petter saying that Luna is one of her wolves and the IWC confirming they do in fact have one of Petter's wolves.  Then, the ALDF files an intent to sue letter and Terri files a legal Affidavit in response to the ALDF threat stating her wolves are NOT pure gray wolf but instead are wolf-dogs - which should make the ALDF back off, right? Well...

What struck me odd about that affidavit from Petter is the Intl. Wolf Center doesn't deal in wolf-dogs that I am aware of, they have always maintained that their wolves are pure gray wolf.  It's the point of the IWC, to educate people on purebred gray wolves, not hybrids.  So… I emailed the Intl. Wolf Center and asked, are any of the wolves on their property hybrids or are they all gray wolf and here was the response I received from Carissa Winter:

Now, I suppose Petter could say that the IWC staff is lying and that Luna isn't truly a gray wolf but I am going to venture to guess that when the IWC received Luna, found her to have multiple health issues and started investigating her origins they probably did a DNA test to make sure she was actually a purebred gray wolf.  I can't swear to it because I was not involved in the purchase, transfer or housing of Luna but I am looking at who has the most credibility at this point.  Luna was given to a broker to be sold and that broker kept Luna's origins from the IWC.    Why? Would they refuse to buy her if they had known she was one of Petter's wolves?  Sounds like it from Lori's email.  If they would refuse to buy her from Petter had they known it was one of her wolves, why? Do they know something about Petter that makes want to avoid the wolves she breeds? Lots of questions that go unanswered and things the IWC staff will likely never address, unless  of course they are brought into court over this issue of protected gray wolves being slaughtered.

BEAUTIFUL LUNA - she and the rest of her species should have the right to live long free lives.