Posted on 07/18/2006 7:25:28 AM PDT by Mr. Brightside
Westmoreland woman found dead in wolf pen
Wolf hybrids killed
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Humane agents warned a Westmoreland County woman it was only a matter of time before the wolf hybrids she kept as pets turned on her.
Authorities are trying to determine if the pets attacked and killed Sandra L. Piovesan, whose body was found mauled in the fenced pen where the hybrids were housed...
Piovesan, who lived alone, had raised and bred wolf hybrids for several years, sometimes drawing complaints from neighbors.
"Everybody told her this would happen, but she just wouldn't listen. She was a very likable person, but she was just delusional about their danger, and totally misguided."
Wolves in the wild fear people because humans are their only predators, said James Paulson, outreach coordinator with Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary in New Mexico. But wolf hybrids are more dangerous than wild wolves because they don't fear humans, Gower said...
State police Trooper Brian Gross said Piovesan's body was mauled "pretty bad" by the hybrids.
Gross said humane officers tranquilized the six animals before troopers shot and killed them...
She sometimes kept nearly a dozen wolf hybrids and occasionally invited visitors inside the pen to see them. She built a playground with tunnels and climbing stations for the animals.
Wolf hybrids do not make good pets, experts say...
"She loved those wolves just like pets. She told me she was part American Indian, and she told me it was part of her ethnic background," said Brian Gallagher, a longtime friend.
"They were all one pack ... including Sandra, who was considered the leader of the pack. I think one of them may have wanted to take over as leader of the pack." ...
Gieselman said Piovesan fed the hybrids roadkill.
(Excerpt) Read more at pittsburghlive.com ...
lol!
You must have a direct line to my funny bone...
KAUFMAN COUNTY To many, the video is horrific: repeated scenes of a pack of wolf dogs snapping and barking, taking down one of their own as it whimpers and wails in an outdoor compound a few miles southwest of Kemp.
But is it, under the law, cruelty? Is it even what it appears?
Darlene Murphy, the neighbor who shot a video that has achieved notoriety on the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals Web site, says it is. She and some of her neighbors say they are tired of the occasional fighting, the regular howling and the odors emanating from dozens of wolf-dog hybrids owned by William Lambert.
But Mr. Lambert, his supporters and even two wolf hybrid experts who might disagree with some of his practices say the neighbors misunderstand how wolves and wolf hybrids fight not to injure, but to establish hierarchy in their pack.
Ms. Murphy provided still photos of two dead wolf dogs that she said she photographed weeks after some of the fights, but Mr. Lambert "absolutely" denied that any of his dogs have been severely injured or killed in the attacks.
By the middle of last week, the tensions had escalated into an online and e-mail war between people who had witnessed an eight-minute, heavily edited PETA video and customers of Mr. Lambert's business, Starcross Wolves, some of whom have been satisfied enough with his facility to return to buy a second wolf dog.
"Over 15 years," he said of his customers, "no one has ever sued me or called Kaufman County."
The rest of the story is here.
People are playing with fire with these animals. This is the turbo-charged version of the pit bull.
Sounds like somebody else wanted to be leader of the pack.
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Blitzer did it.
My guy is the detective in the pic on the website with the shotgun. He said it was one of the most bizzare incidents he's ever investigated.
Funniest thing I've seen all day. =D
There is no record of a wolf killing a human in the United States.
This woman obviously died of natural causes, then the wolves fed on her.
/sarc
Wolf dogs, not wolfs. Big difference.
"I am merely a vessel through which genius flows."
--Homer Simpson
Make that wolves.
My 2 1/2 year old 100 pound intact male wolf mix, Cujo has just recently began nipping at people. Never me, he loves me.
They loved this lady too, till the day that one of them decided it was time to become Leader of the Pack. Of course, with a single wolf/dog, pack behavior isn't as likely to appear as it would be if there were a group IMHUEO (In my humble uneducated opinion).
Sad story but even a 'pack' of large dogs can sometimes be dangerous. Just something about the 'pack mentality'.
Thanks HOTD.
I had a pack of pit-bulls surrounding me and growling real low when I was 12. I was not attacked, but that was because my uncle, who owned them, called them off in time. (shiver)
My parents told my grandparents that we wouldn't come to see them anymore until those d-mn dogs were gone or dead, Dad did not care which.
You were very lucky Cheryl. A pack of pit-bulls is a fearsome thing.
But...but...PETA says that they only eat vegetables.
.../s
I gurss that the child learned the hard way that it was different from a German Shepherd.
It is always the innocent that suffer from the actions of fools.
They once crossed a French Poodle with an Alaskan Timber Wolf and called their offspring Fifi of the North.
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