Alger Pet Killed by Wolf (Michigan's Upper Peninsula)

MUNISING - State wildlife officials are reminding pet owners to closely watch their animals after a wolf attacked and killed a dog in Munising Township early Wednesday.

The dog, a 6-year-old, 23-pound dachshund owned by Tom and Ann Dolaskie of Miller Road, was snatched and wholly devoured by a wolf when the dog was let outside the family home, shortly after midnight.

"It was about twenty feet out from our front door," Tom said. "It was real close."

Ann witnessed most of the attack. She said the animal was light brownish or tan-colored.

"It looked liked an extra-sized German shepherd," Ann said. "It had her (the dachshund) on the ground in a choke hold. We've never seen anything like this."

The wolf appeared fearless, stared and didn't drop the dog when Ann yelled at it. Within a short time, the animal had disappeared into the darkness.

Wednesday morning, the Dolaskies searched portions of their 12-acre property but couldn't find any trace of their dog.

A neighbor told Tom he'd seen a wolf cross Miller Road about 200 yards west of the Dolaskie home, about an hour before the attack occurred.

Wednesday morning, Ann found one large animal track, but she wasn't able to determine if it was a wolf track.

However, a Michigan Department of Natural Resources employee summoned by the Dolaskies from the Shingleton field office, was able to locate and identify several wolf tracks.

"They found tracks in by where the dog was," said Brian Roell, Michigan wolf coordinator, at the DNR's Marquette office. "It was probably a lone animal traveling through and found the dog as an easy meal. It's an unfortunate situation."

DNR spokeswoman Ann Wilson said this time of year is when younger wolves are dispersed into areas away from packs, forced out by alpha males or females.

The dispersed solitary travelers are roaming, looking for a territory and food, which is often hard to come by.

"It's at this time that they start to lose their shyness and that's when they start coming into areas they shouldn't be," Wilson said.

Wolves will kill other canids as threats to territorial bounds or as competitors for food.

"Wolves won't tolerate other canid species on its territory," Wilson said. "And other canids include coyotes, foxes and dogs."

Roell said the DNR was unaware of any wolf packs located close to the big lots and family homes along Miller Road, located just east of Munising.

Wolves will occasionally kill dogs that are household pets, but more often the dogs wolves kill are hunting dogs.

"It is something that does happen every year in the Upper Peninsula," Roell said, referring to pet predation.

In Michigan, wolves supplement their basic diet of deer with beaver, snowshoe hares, rodents and other small mammals. Wolves will scavenge unrecovered deer from hunting season, as well as road-killed deer and other animals.

Additional evidence has identified woodchuck, muskrat, coyote and raccoon as food sources. Insects, nuts, berries and grasses round out the diet of the wolf, according to the DNR.

To help prevent pet predation, officials suggest keeping pets inside whenever possible and contacting the DNR if problems do occur.

Pamphlets on co-existing with wolves are available from DNR offices with tips for hunters and livestock owners.

If the wolf returns to Miller Road and becomes a nuisance, the DNR will try to trap and remove the animal. The Dolaskies were also offered a firecracker device that works to scare off wolves.

"My guess is it's an isolated incident and that wolf won't be heard from again," Roell said. "But there are no guarantees."

Des Moines Register had this story a day or two ago! 2 high school distance runners were out running on a golf course around sunset, in Des Moines. They heard something and looked over, there was a mountain lion! They hit the fence and over they went, the mountain lion ran off, away from them. DNR said, not to worry, they were almost sure it was someone's pet that had been turned loose!! LOL!! Turns out, this same(?)mountain lion had been spotted by 3 or 4 other people. One lady heard a scream, she looks out her window and saw it chasing a cat or dog or something through her neighborhood! The DNR Natural Resources Committee is having a meeting tomorrow in a town not far from here because some 'group' has asked that mountain lions be put on the endangered species list, only problem is that NO WHERE does it say what time and where this meeting is taking place in this town!! WONDER WHY????

So what is the story here?

"The dog, a 6-year-old, 23-pound dachshund owned by Tom and Ann Dolaskie of Miller Road, was snatched and wholly devoured by a wolf when the dog was let outside the family home, shortly after midnight."

Then: "Wednesday morning, the Dolaskies searched portions of their 12-acre property but couldn't find any trace of their dog."

So what was it? Did the dog get "eaten wholly or didn't it? Where the husband and wife just hoping to find the collar in some wolf poop?

" the spin is building up and the BS about how harmless wolves are to humans is going to go into high gear."

Geez, do you have a link to the stories that show a human has been attacked or eaten by a wolf? I would love to see it. So some yippy little dog gets snatched... big deal this is life.

When a human gets attacked I will feel sorry and start the wolf hunt. But otherwise don't start some kill the wolves BS because Darwin's law got to a tiny dog.

Geez, do you have a link to the stories that show a human has been attacked or eaten by a wolf? I would love to see it. So some yippy little dog gets snatched... big deal this is life.

Wolves are documented as having attacked humans in Europe quite frequently. There is a claim that wolves have never attacked humans in North America. This could be attributed to the fact that Indians didn't keep written records and that the white men that first came west didn't either.

Do you really think that a predator the size of a wolf won't attack humans? coyotes are wolves, just a smaller version and they have been known to attack humans especially children. This is well documented and if you want to do a bit of research on it feel free.

Dogs, a close relative of the wolf and coyote attack humans daily, so what makes you think the wolf won't? Are they some how endowed with a special sense that allows them to determine that humans are not attackable, do they have a "Oh, well they are human I can't attack them!" attitude?

Anyone that thinks wolfs won't attack humans, especially children when they get hungry enough simply have been brain washed by the Bambi syndrome.

BTW if it was your dog you might not be so flippant about it being eaten. Also, you might want to ask the ranchers in Wyoming about all the cattle the wonderful Yellowstone wolves kill every year and mouth off to them about how it is only a few freaking cows and what's the big deal? I am sure they will tell you why it is a big deal.

"Oh what wonderfully incisive logic."

The logic is inescapable to anyone versed in logic.

To my knowlege no documented wolf attack on a human exists, but as I said in my post, until very recently wolves were shot on sight. Being a smart animal, they reacted logically and ran away from humans the minute they spotted humans. That was the status quo since humans began recording history; wolf kills Farmer's chicken, Farmer reacts with deadly force. Wolf reacts by running away from Farmer trying to kill wolf.

Today the equation has changed. Wolf kills chicken, no response from Farmer who doesn't want to tangle with the MDNR. The result? Wolf is not afraid anymore and snatches Dachshund from a backyard in which small children also play.

The first key question here is why the wolf did what it did, and the answer is simple. It is a wolf. It was hungry.

The second key question is whether or not a hungry wolf can discern between a dachshund and a small child. I maintain that it cannot, and being a carnivore, a wolf attack on a small child is imminent. Bears are also carnivores, and bear attacks on humans are well documented.

Why anyone would apply logic to the possibility of a carnivore attacking someone made out of meat, and coming to the conclusion that the carnivore wouldn't do so, exhibits a total lack of logic and critical thinking skills.

Its only a matter of time before all of the Dachshunds are gone and a toddler is snatched.

Yeah ... let your toddler out in the back yard after midnight and zaa-zoom they're gone ... while an evil wolf with a glint in his/her eye smacks their lips in the wood line nearby. What we have here is the next episode of 'JAWS' ...

Its only a matter of time before all of the Dachshunds are gone and a toddler is snatched.

You haven't read the book on wolves.

According to authorities there has never been a documented case of a wolf attacking a human in the US.

/sarc

"...toddlers don't look like sausages and shout "food", "food" like wiener dogs do..."

To a wolf, they do. When I first read this I assumed it to be mistaken ID for a big domestic dog (esp. the remark about it looking like a oversize shepherd.) as a stray or feral domestic will tend to be a lot bolder around people. Wolf packs will (normally) avoid large groups of humans or even signs of human activity. The classic "lone wolf," that either operates on the outside edges of his pack's territory, or has completely been exiled from it, can be entirely unpredictable without the enforcement of pack rules to define his behavior.

To my knowlege no documented wolf attack on a human exists

Some of the problem is this..

The remains of a person is found. What killed him/her? Bear ? wolverine? Did a wolf actually kill the victim or just feed on the kill?
The 'authorities' can't or won't attribute the kill to a wolf. Hence, no documented case.

Dear Yooper

There is a well published case of a wolf grabbing a sleeping child by the face and trying to drag it out of the tent. The boy's father managed to get the wolf to release the boy and leave.

But the boy was a major surgical challenge.

That case was in Readers Digest, so no AgencyPerson has any excuse to claim they "didn't know". All they had to do was take their face out of the Enquirer for a monent or two.

Or stop drooling over the cover girls on the mags and take a moment to acquire some hard data.

Next time anyone sees something like that "no wolf attacks on humans" like what Disney had on screen at the end of Dances With Wolves, just remember that Disney brought us Bambi, the fire, and generations of fire management ala Disney. Think Yellowstone fire. Think Disney's Bambi legacy.

Think HollyWeird BS!

"Do you really think that a predator the size of a wolf won't attack humans?"

Stick to the facts. IT HAS NEVER HAPPENED HERR. No babies carried off by wolves. Not even the indians (who you brought up) IIR have stories of that.

Stop the hysteria and fear mongering. Some are afraid of wolves because they are afraid of dogs, and you..?

As far as the "logic" arguments go isn't logic based on facts and factual past events and occurrences that allows you to come to a reasoned way of thinking.

There are NO documented attacks and to start with the "babies being carried off" is just a bit irresponsible. That I came to using logic.

Oh and european stories came to us from the same peoples who invented and still believe in vampires. Would it be logical to include those stories from those same peoples in the "logic" as the basis of your scare tactic?

Hmmm

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