Severe and fatal atacks on people by wolf hybrids have increased dramatically in recent years. Understandably, this has no doubt happened as a result of the hybrid's increasing popularity as a pet. As a result, not surprisingly, there has been a marked increase in civil litigation involving personal injury damages inflicted by these animals.

Attorneys involved in civil litigation handling dog bite cases, need to become more informed about the nature of these animals in the event that litigation arises involving the hybrid. To date, little has been written from a scientific perspective about the behavioral tendencies in this animal.

In an effort to rectify this situation, this author published a paper in Veterinary Medicine documenting the wolf hybrid's physical and behavioral attributes : Wolf hybrids: Are they suitable as pets? The impetus for this publication stemmed from a lawsuit in California in which Dr. Polsky was retained as an expert. After having learned the details of this case (as described in the article) and knowing how hybrids are typically managed by owners, Dr. Polsky felt the strong need to inform others, particularly those in the veterinary and legal communities, of the risks involved in keeping these animals in any situation where they have opportunity to to contact and possibly attack a person.

Whether these animals should be allowed in urban environment and treated as if there were ordinary dogs is controversial. Although differences undoubedly exist between individual hybrids, generally one must realize that a wolf hybrid is not a dog. Accordingly, one must treat an animal like this with caution.

• Moves with a slinking gait
• Tendency to howl rather tha bark
• Dense hair growth in the ear canals
• Sheds heavily from legs and feet, particularly in the summer
• Tuffs of hair present on face
• Elongated bones and narrow chest
• Head carried low
• Adept at escaping from enclosures
• Difficult to housebreak
• Readily prone to the effects of group facilitation
• Resists authority
• Pronounced dominance and predatory aggressive tendencies
• Markedly inquisitive and exploratory
• Excellent problem solver

Relevant links about wolf hybrids

Overview of the wolf hybrid

General Info on the wolf-hybrid

Wolf Hybrid Rescue Network

Wolf pack bites back (brief article)

Wolf dog resource web site

The Wolf-dog hybrid: Overview of a controversial animal

The Call of the Wild: Article summarizing controversy over ownership
of wolf hybrids (pdf)


First possible human fatality by wolf noted in Canada