Aurora Animal Control claims longtime family dog is wolf hybrid, won’t return him to owners

The family's veterinarian also says the same thing. But Aurora Animal Control thinks Capone is a wolf-hybrid.

"Our German shepherd, Capone, got out Feb. 24. He jumped the fence. It’s the first time in the seven years we’ve lived here," said Capone’s owner, Tracy Abbato.

Aurora Animal Control picked up Capone that day, but turned away his family when they tried taking him home.

"They say he is a hybrid-wolf now and don't want to release (him) back to us because he is an exotic animal,” Abbato said.

The city ran a DNA test to determine his breed on March 1 and if the results prove he's a wolf-hybrid, the family dog could be put down.

Animal control said based on Capone's mannerisms, behavior and physical characteristics, they suspect he is part wolf.

"I am 100 percent confident he is not a wolf, not a doubt in my mind," Abbato said.

But while they await the test results, Capone sits in the Aurora Animal Shelter, away from his family and his two buddies who've grown up together from puppies.

"It's hard for me. It's hard for my kids. He's a family member. We've had him for almost 10 years. We miss him," Abbato said.

“Wolves blow the doors off dogs in physical terms, with much greater endurance, bite strength, cold hardiness and immune resistance.
This dog does not look like a wolf hybrid to me. His ears are more pointed, and larger, relative to his head, like a dog. The inner corners of his eyes are inward like a dog, rather than angled down like a wolf. His tail has an upward curve - wolves never do. His front legs are wide apart like a dog (wide chested), wolves front legs can be held together when standing. The length of the legs and the size of the feet are more doglike (shorter/smaller) than wolflike. Wolves never bark, so that is a behavior they could check.
He sure looks like a shepherd to me. Having lived in a house for ten years makes it unlikely that there is much or any wolf in him.”

This is about the only rational post I have seen from the FReepers on this. kudos

I understand what you're seeing, however I see some other indicators that could have been what flagged the animal control folks to the hybrid concern. The winter coat is bushed up such as what you see with the fine, thick undercoat of wolves, Siberian husky and malamute - An inspection of the coat would give a yes/no on this in about 10 seconds after the dog arrived to the pound. In addition, the inside of the ears are heavily furred and hard to be sure but I think there is also heavy fur between the foot pads. These are also traits of wolves and their closest domestic dog cousins husky and malamute.

I was living in a South side Denver metro suburb when the dangerous dog local and state level laws were radically beefed up in about 2000 or so. These were enacted after a number of attacks on humans with pit bulls being the worst.

One incident was a few hundred yards from my house. A woman walking the greenbelt trail was surrounded by three pit bulls that were very aggressive. Lucky for her, several teenage boys walking home from hockey practice in their pads and with sticks were on the trail and ran to her. They kept the dogs backed off but the dogs didn't run away. I was outside the house when a constable with lights flashing turned up the greenbelt trail and throwing a rooster tail climbing the top of the hill. Two more constables quickly followed. Next there were a bunch of gunshots and that was the end of the pit bulls. How would you like that in your neighborhood? The second attack by pit bulls had a fatal end to a woman in a rural area southeast of metro Denver. The woman went outside her front door and was attacked by several pit bulls that had broke out of their yard that was some distance away. She was ripped apart. A short time later, a neighbor happened to come for a visit. The pit bulls were still there and went at him. The guy was able to jump in his pickup bed and the pits could not jump that high. The guy in the pickup called 911 on a cell phone and the first responders were the volunteer fireman. The pits kept them corralled in their engine. Sheriff deputies finally put them down once they arrived.

Anyway, it was incidents like this that led to the very strict dangerous animal laws. IIRC, the owner of a dangerous dog that causes a fatal attack on a human faces a felony charge along the line of manslaughter. It's no joke.

Long winded, but the comments about wolf DNA in your sheltie or whatever are really off the mark. If for example, a wolf hybrid is a 50:50 mix this distribution of DNA will be approximately 50% of the sire's and dams breed respectively. Yes, that cute sheltie has some wolf DNA present but is like 0.00000000000000000000000001% of the sheltie breed DNA makeup.

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