She knew all the dogs in the isolated area where the family makes their home in the foothills of the Pryor Mountains and they had all been fixed. None of the dogs close enough to make a visit to her property were shepherds.
“I didn’t even know he [the wolf] was around until I saw the Facebook post of him getting killed, and then my dog was pregnant, and I’m like, ‘oh, it can’t be,’” Phillips said. “I know all the dogs around, and my cousin [neighbor] had just fixed her male dogs.”
She also knew wolf-dog hybrids are illegal in the Cowboy State, but by the time tests came back showing the puppies were 50% wolf, 45% pit bull and 5% Chesapeake Bay retriever, the puppies had already won the hearts of Phillips and her two young children, Azalees and Olivia. It was a surprise, but not unthinkable considering where the family lives.
“We have mountain lions and bears occasionally roaming around out there, so a wolf, that’s not completely out of the usual, but I didn’t realize that there was a wolf, like, in my yard.”
They were normal puppies at first, but then they started to show their wild side. She was secretly searching for a safe place for the pups, but that search became desperate as the puppies were eating the family out of house and home and had learned to climb their fence and escape the yard. The wolf-dog pack had become a full-time job.
“They need lots of meat. They need tall fences. They need dig lines. They need people to be aware of that they’re not just a normal dog,” she said. “I couldn’t find homes for them, and it was going into fall. They were wreaking havoc because they were digging holes everywhere. They chewed my propane line. They chewed up all my plants. They jumped fences. I couldn’t contain them, and so I reached out to [private wolf sanctuaries].”
Wyoming state statute 23-1-103 states private individuals cannot own live animals classified as big or trophy game, or any wolf or wolf hybrid. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD) is the state agency responsible for enforcing this law. There’s a long list of wild animals that you can have in your possession, but wolves are not on that list.
You can have a monkey, ostrich or raccoon, but owning wolves or hybrids is strictly prohibited, according to Chapter 10 regulations.
“Scientific evidence clearly demonstrates that importation, possession, confinement, transportation, sale and disposition of wildlife may result in disease, genetic, ecological, environmental and other threats to Wyoming’s wildlife,” according to the department’s Chapter 10 brochure.
Department spokesperson Amanda Fry said Wyoming is one of several states that prohibits the private ownership of hybrid wolves.
“These animals are classified as predators under Wyoming state statute, which prohibits the private ownership of live animals classified as big or trophy game animals, or of any wolf or hybrid wolf,” she said in an email exchange with the Tribune. “Not only is it illegal to keep these animals, they are not a recommended family pet, and come with several serious ownership risks, including a higher propensity for aggressive behavior.”
Fry said it is uncommon, but the department has needed to issue citations for illegal possession of wolf hybrids. On the other side of the law, Phillips knows what she was doing was wrong, but she felt it was her responsibility to save the lives of her “accidental” crime.
“I didn’t go out enticing a wolf to come mate with my dog,” she said.
New homes
For several weeks the pups played with Olivia and Azalees. They were so tight that when they were being rounded up to be transported to a facility in Colorado, Tia was forced to run and get Olivia out of school to entice a couple of the pups out of hiding. They loved both of her daughters, but Olivia was their favorite, she said.
She found homes for three of the pups in Montana, but she had to be very particular about who adopted the dogs because they require more secure facilities and special care for which most are not prepared.
As the pups grew, the Phillips’ situation became more desperate. Then she found Pack 22, a special combination of wolf and wolf-dog care and helping veterans with PTSD at the same time. They work with veterans, hoping to help slow the average of 22 veteran suicides per day and help those who are lost to “find their way home.”
With locations in Sedalia, Colorado, Fountain, Florida, Topeka, Kansas and Yoder, Colorado, Pack 22 calls their rescued canines “trauma support wolves and wolf dogs.” Founder and Executive Director for Pack 22 Drew Robertson’s devotion towards helping veterans is rare. Prior to launch, Robertson put in years of research to create the foundation of what became Mattersville Pack 22. His motivation came from the loss of one of his best friends, former Marine Randy Hansen, who suffered from PTSD for years leading up to his death.
Once at the facility, the pups received medical care and constant human interaction. Their massive blocky pit bull-like heads mixing with the wild look of a wolf made them very intimidating, so socialization was important.
Of the eight rescued by Pack 22, only two were adopted out due to the lack of private citizens with the facilities and patience to raise the pups. The rest became therapy animals for the PTSD program.
Michael and Shauna Bernard, Colorado residents familiar with caring for the large canines, were the only qualified recipients.
Bernard, a contractor, and his wife Shauna, a yoga instructor, had just lost a beloved mastiff to bloat (gastric dilatation-volvulus (GDV), a serious and life-threatening condition where the stomach fills with gas, food or fluid and can then twist, cutting off blood flow and potentially leading to death) and they were looking for a replacement. While tooling around online, Bernard happened onto the Pack 22 web page.
After seeing the photos of the intense looking pups, they planned a trip to the facility to see the hybrids, hoping to bring one home.
Michael wanted one of the black wolf-dog pups. Anubis was his favorite. But when Shauna saw Horace, the lone brown pup — possibly due to the surprise 5% Chesapeake Bay retriever influence in Nova, Tia theorized — she immediately fell in love with him.
“He jumped on my wife and almost broke her nose, licking her face,” Michael said. “Then she said, ‘That’s my dog.’”
Due to their experience with challenging large dog breeds, Robertson agreed to allow Michael and Shauna to take two of the pups, which they began to call pitti-wolves. They were thrilled to adopt the extraordinary brothers but had several surprises as they began raising them.
“I knew it was going to be harder, and I knew they were different, but I didn’t know they were that different,” Michael said.
Horace and Anubis have two absolutely different personalities, Michael said. Anubis is more like a wolf than a dog. He is suspicious of visitors and steers clear of social situations. Horace is more like a dog and loves everyone who walks through the Bernards’ door.
“That’s the thing with wolf dogs, you get different personalities. You really don’t know how they’ll be until they get bigger.”
Robertson has been involved with wolf dogs for many years and had never seen F1 wolf and pit-bull mixes. In breeding, F1 refers to the first filial generation, which is the first generation of offspring produced by crossing two purebred dogs of different breeds. Due to the extremely unusual breeding, he thinks they may be the only pitti-wolves in the world.
Often viewing dogs as competition or potential prey, wolves may attack dogs, especially in areas where their territories overlap, to defend their space or because they see them as a food source.
Sometimes the couple recognize the dog breed in the pair, but, unlike domestic dogs, sometimes the wolf dogs seem like they have souls. “It’s hard to explain,” he said.
“It’s like, when you look at them, it’s like you can feel their soul is so different,” he said. “They actually hear you, they can feel how you feel, you know? When dogs are close to you, they can do that a little bit. But with a wolf, is just so different. I don’t know how to explain it.”
In Colorado, individuals who want to own a wolf-dog hybrid are required to obtain a special permit from the Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) agency. The permit process involves requirements related to secure containment facilities, knowledge of wolf-dog hybrid behavior, and adherence to care and welfare standards.
Owning a wolf-dog hybrid comes with significant liability, and owners can be held legally responsible for any incidents, such as attacks or escape.
A wolf’s bite force is generally estimated to be between 400 and 1,200 pounds per square inch (PSI). This range is significantly higher than a large dog’s bite force, which typically maxes out at about 300 PSI.
Yet, none of Bernard’s neighbors have complaints and their pitti-wolves have never caused problems. The wolves don’t bark or try to escape. They are welcome in the neighborhood despite their unusual strength, according to Bernard. One neighbor told Bernard “I didn’t even know you had wolves. I never hear them.”
However, the Bernards are ever-vigilant, Michael said. They know how strong the animals are, even more so than the mastiffs and cane corsos they’ve had in the past.
“If an alpha can bring down an elk and break its femur with a bite, that means they’re pretty strong. And then when you put the pit bull in them, which has the large jaw and the strength of a pit bull, I think it makes them even more powerful than a normal wolf,” he said.
Unfortunately, there are many people looking to own a wolf dog and not all are as prepared as the Bernard family. Many who take them in as pups end up looking for a rescue organization when they become too aggressive as adults. The same is true with many wildlife species taken in as pets.
Tia finds Michael
Raising wolves in secret was tough for Tia. It all came down to protecting beloved pets, in her mind. The thought of all 11 of them being euthanized by the state after being raised by her daughters was too much to bear. She knows what she did was illegal, but in her heart she feels she did the right thing. She was lucky to find good homes for all of her pitti-wolves and has tried to follow up with their new owners.
She found Michael while searching for more information about the hybrids online. “I think you have two of my babies,” she said when she called.
The two talked about the pets for quite a while, building a friendship through their conversations. While Tia hopes to never have another litter of pitti-wolves, her and her daughter’s love for the unique, illegal pups from their pit-bull named Nova was seemingly unavoidable, she said. Now, their only consolation is knowing they saved the lives of the pups and they are in responsible homes.
As for the wolf that impregnated Nova, when asked about it, an official at Game and Fish refused to offer any further information, citing Wyoming Statute 23-1-304, which states the department is not able to release any information on wolves except in aggregate form.
After mating with Nova, the gray wolf, which was collared in Montana, was reported killed near Horseshoe Bend north of Lovell. It was shot by a wildlife specialist, also known as a ‘government trapper’ employed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services. It’s the first wolf killed for depredating livestock in Big Horn County in 20 years by Wildlife Services, according to a federal official.
The wolf was found eating a lamb near the Tillett Ranch just outside Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area north of Lovell. The large male was previously reported for injuring one goat and killing another at the ranch, which put the gears in motion to have an official respond to the scene.
There have been reports of wolves in the Bighorn Mountain Range for years. The last wolf lethally removed in the Bighorns by Wildlife Services was in August 2003, according to Mike Burrell, acting state director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services.
Wildlife Services is allowed to remove wolves linked to depredating/killing livestock throughout their habitat. It is also legal for landowners and hunters to shoot wolves at will in the state’s predator zone, according to Wyoming regulations, which covers most of Wyoming except for the “trophy” zone, in northwest Wyoming. In the “trophy” zone, those who shoot wolves must have a license and there is a limited number of wolves that can be killed.
The wolf who mated with Tia’s pit bull was well outside the “trophy” zone.
