Wolf-dog hybrids are banned as pets in some US states, but are legal in Alabama. Image: GETTY IMAGES
U.S. child tragically lost in Alabama wolf-dog hybrid attack.
Authorities in Alabama, USA, have stated that a family’s pet hybrid wolf-dog murdered a three-month-old baby.
Thursday, the youngster passed away in Chelsea, which is located around 20 miles (32 km) southwest of Birmingham, Alabama, due to injuries that are thought to have been inflicted by the animal.
According to the Shelby County Sheriff’s office, a veterinarian euthanized the wolf hybrid on the spot.
“Unfortunate and tragic” were the words used by the mayor of the city to describe the death.
“It’s been confirmed that one of our children here in Chelsea was killed by an exotic family pet and succumbed to their injuries yesterday afternoon after being taken to the hospital,” Mayor Picklesimer said in a press release.
The baby’s house was visited by police on Thursday at about 13:00 (19:00 GMT) local time in response to a 911 call regarding an animal assault, according to the police.
After being transported to the hospital, the baby was declared dead as a result of the injuries they had incurred in the attack.
A “wolf hybrid” was the pet animal that the infant’s family had, according to the police.
They also said that they are still looking into what happened before the youngster died.
According to Mayor Picklesimer, other youngsters were there in the house when the incident occurred.
An identical tragedy happened in Virginia in 2018 when a three-year-old wolf hybrid attacked and killed an eight-day-old infant.
A wolf-dog hybrid is the offspring of a domestic dog and a wolf, as stated by the International Wolf Centre in Minnesota.
“These two species are interfertile, meaning that they can interbreed and produce viable offspring,” The Centre said on its website.
“In other words, wolves can breed with dogs, and their offspring can produce offspring themselves.”
The International Wolf Center’s wolf curator, Giselle Narvaez Rivera, claimed that people frequently mistake them for wolfdogs, which are domestic dogs with abnormally high levels of wolf lineage.
She went on to say that wolfdogs are far more numerous in the United States than wolf-dog hybrids.
There is a lot of debate over whether they are suitable as pets or not.
Few individuals have been successful in keeping wolf hybrids as pets, and the International Wolf Centre reports that the likelihood of this becoming the case decreases as the proportion of wolf in the animal increases.
People in the United States buy animals they can’t possibly care for, leading to the annual abandonment of thousands of these animals.
According to Ms. Narvaez, a hybrid wolf-dog’s complicated and unpredictable temperament makes them a difficult pet to own.
For Ms. Narvaez Rivera, “if you are going to do it, you have to take so many things into consideration especially if you’re having kids”.
It is permissible to keep wolf hybrids as pets in the United States since they are considered domestic animals according to federal law.
Nevertheless, the ownership and breeding of these creatures is governed by state legislation in the United States, which might differ from one county to the next.
It is against the law to own a wolf hybrid in certain states, including Illinois, Michigan, and New York.
Although there are regulations regarding the proper care and confinement of wolf hybrids, it is not against the law to own one in Alabama.
According to the Dangerous Wild Animals Act of 1976, a permit is necessary to own a first-generation wolfdog in the United Kingdom. This means that at least one parent of the dog is a wolf.
But as long as it’s at least three generations removed from the original parent wolf, it may be legally owned.