AT HOME : Hybrids by Permit

No California agency regulates or forbids the breeding and sale of wolf-dog hybrids. But to control their behavior, the Los Angeles Department of Animal Care and Control recently began classifying such “dogs” as wild animals.

As such, owners of hybrids must purchase a $125 wild-animal permit, keep their pet in an enclosure at least 6 feet high and have the pen inspected by the department.

In California, hybrids are no longer considered dogs because of a recent state Department of Health Services memo stating that tests have not proven that the rabies vaccine is effective on hybrids.

Since the classification was changed six months ago, the Department of Animal Care and Control has given just two wolf-dog permits. Thousands of other hybrids in the state should technically receive permits, but it’s often anyone’s guess if a dog’s blood runs part wolf. Proof is sometimes available by measuring skulls after death. UCLA scientists have peered into the DNA of wolf-coyotes, but such studies have yet to be adapted to wolf-dogs.

“You’ve essentially got two ways to go,” Wildlife Waystation President Martine Colette says. “If you call it a wolf, it’s a wolf. If you call it a dog, it’s a dog. I’ve had owners swear their animal is 50% wolf, but it looks like a cross between a husky and a shepherd.”

Colette says there is no one trait that determines wolf ancestry. “It may be the gait, the way the tail is held during certain behaviors, the eyes or the length of the legs. Or it could be none of those.”

Animal shelters routinely turn hybrids away, refusing to accept liability should the animal be sold and cause problems. Wolf-dogs are frequently advertised at costs up to $1,500 in newspaper classified ads. But strains vary widely, and professed percentages of wolf and dog are questionable.

Claiming that an animal is 50% wolf actually says little since gene blends can produce animals that look and act like wolves, or those that look like wolves and act like dogs (presumably the best type), or hybrids that act like wolves and look like dogs.

“I don’t think people are in a technical violation if their animal is one-eighth wolf and they take it for a walk around the block on a leash, outside an enclosure,” says Frank Andrews, animal care and control director. “It’s such a gray area. But I think anyone who sells these is sticking their neck out a mile as far as liability goes.”