‘Wolf Woman’ Fights to Set Record Straight

Deborah Warrick cringes every time she hears the fairy tale “The Three Little Pigs”--or, for that matter, “Little Red Riding Hood” and “Peter and the Wolf.”

Such innocent-seeming tales, she said, wrongly portray wolves as ravenous beasts that prey on children, as in a passage from the famous Grimms Brothers fairy tale:

“When she got to the wood, she met a wolf; but Red Riding Hood did not know what a wicked animal he was. . . .

“The wolf thought: ‘This tender little creature will be a plump morsel.’ ”

‘Raised Fearing Wolves’

“Kids are raised fearing wolves, and they grow up not caring if they are killed,” said Warrick, who owns three wolves and became so engrossed with her hobby that she began publishing a magazine called Wolves and Related Canids this year.

Not all popular wolf stories put the animal in a bad light, Warrick said, citing the Disney films “Never Cry Wolf” and “The Adventures of Natty Gann.”

But the animals have traditionally had a bad reputation. They were virtually wiped out in the early part of this century in the United States and are only now are being reintroduced into the wild.

However, Warrick describes them as basically cowardly, opportunistic animals that go for the easiest kill.

“I’d be more afraid of a pit bull or a German shepherd,” she said.

Warrick, a 33-year-old animal activist from the San Fernando Valley whose friends call her “the wolf woman,” became interested in wild animals at an early age. They now are her passion.

“I’ve always been into exotics,” she said. “My parents always encouraged that sort of thing, and we had pet rattlesnakes and raccoons--even an 8-foot python.”

Seven years ago, Warrick, who sells 3-D computer graphic systems to the aerospace industry, was given her first wolf cub.

“That’s when I realized just how intelligent they are,” she said, noting that a wolf’s brain is 30% larger than that of a similar-sized dog.

She got around a California law that prohibits people from keeping pure-bred wolves as pets by registering them as dogs. But wolves, she said, are not for everyone.

In fact, Warrick uses the magazine to discourage people from attempting to raise wolves at home. Too often, they get into the wrong hands and either end up being put to sleep or in a wolf sanctuary.

“They don’t make good pets. They are a pack animal and will not become your house pet,” she said. “If they accept you, you become a part of their pack and must abide by pack rules.”

Warrick’s three Alaskan tundra wolves, Awesome, Nova and Tundra, are kept in Northern California and Colorado because her Woodland Hills home has too little space for them.

The wolves must be kept outdoors. In the wild, they dig dens, clearing away twigs, rocks and other obstacles to protect their cubs.

‘Think It’s Their Den’

“In a house, they’ll automatically think it’s their den, and they’ll pull up the carpeting and drapes to make it safe,” Warrick said. “You can’t yell at them or strike them because you’ll lose your bond. A dog comes back for more, but a wolf won’t.”

The magazine, which averages 65 pages, is published every other month from Warrick’s home. It evolved from hundreds of documents sent to her from wolf biologists in such places as Minnesota and Canada. A frequent contributor, David Mech, is spending the summer on Ellesmere Island in Greenland studying Arctic wolves.

“It became such a waste to Xerox it all for the wolf owners I know, that I decided to start the magazine,” she said. Breeders and dog food manufacturers advertise, and so far she has broken even by doing the editing, typesetting, paste-up and some writing herself.

Wolves and Related Canids has 500 subscribers and continues to grow. Warrick estimated that there are at least 500 wolf or hybrid wolf-dog owners in California alone.

“It makes it all worthwhile knowing that I’m educating people and making wolf lovers out of wolf haters,” she said.

Articles on reintroducing wolves into the United States, veterinary advice, wolf owners and lesser-known canids make up the bulk of the magazine. Each issue also contains a complete listing of wolf and wildlife organizations.

Between 1901 and 1930, the entire wolf population in the United States was wiped out. Ranchers called it predator control because wolves were attacking their livestock.

But Warrick said hunters and trappers competed with the wolves for other predators, virtually eliminating the wolf’s basic food source.

“Wolves only kill diseased or weak animals. They’re too cowardly and not strong enough to kill the strong and virile. It’s a major misconception,” she said.

For wolf cubs to be raised in captivity, they must be placed with owners before they are 10 days old.

Warrick, who briefly studied veterinary medicine at UC Davis and took an animal-keeper course at the Los Angeles Zoo, bottle-fed her charges goat milk every three hours when they were infants. They now eat about five pounds of raw meat daily.

“They are so loving,” she said. “When I go into their pen, I’m overcome with licks and jumps. They knock me down and walk all over me.”

She is no stranger to adventure. Besides nursing exotic reptiles and other wildlife back to health, she started her own advertising agency, was an investment counselor, performed in professional roller-skating shows and was a sky diver until a near-fatal crash.

She was also chosen recently as one of 100 contestants in Playboy magazine’s ongoing 35th anniversary Playmate search.

Warricks hopes to win the $35,000 in prize money, which she said will go toward her wolf efforts.