![]() ![]() He broke away from the tour and walked along tall, heavy-duty pens with beautiful, lupine dogs in them, narrating their case histories. The animals at the Farm come from all over the country. When people realize all this about their wolfdogs, they sometimes abandon them. And they’re not good guard dogs they expect the owner, their alpha, to protect them. Lots of raw meat (the wolfdogs at the Farm consume about 400 pounds per week). They’re pack animals, so they don’t do well without other canine companions. They can become very destructive indoors, so they need an outdoor pen, with tall fences. “The higher content animals, they don’t like being confined, they don’t like being inside a home, if you bring them inside a house, they might get anxious.” “They’re much more independent, they’re much more difficult to have as pets,” he said. “They want to tell people ‘I have a wolf.’”ĭespite the impressive teeth, Hodanish said well-cared-for wolfdogs aren’t dangerous. Michael Hodanish, who owns the Farm, said there’s another reason people still get them. Michael Hodanish, owner of the Howling Woods Farm wolfdog rescue, cuddles with one of the high content wolfdogs that lives at the facility. They’re expensive – a puppy can cost thousands of dollars. The animals hold a mythical place in our cultural history.īut wolfdogs are illegal to keep in many states (at least in part because there are no approved rabies vaccines for them), or require special permissions. A lot of people get wolfdogs because, like Persiano, they’ve always loved wolves. She doesn’t have any wolfdogs of her own, but she’s at the Farm five days a week and is clearly smitten. Naiche and Samson are both high-content wolfdogs, which means they have a lot of wolf in them. “It’s pretty bad when I go to a doctor and the first thing they say to me is ‘How’s Samson and Naiche today?’ Not me,” she said. She said she always wears something Naiche. ![]() ![]() She wore a necklace with a pendant, featuring a handsome wolfdog named Naiche, resplendent in his winter coat. One of the high content wolfdogs at Howling Woods Farm. “They’re in charge, they’re regal, they’re very majestic, almost mysterious,” she said. She’s drawn to them because she’s always loved wolves. Michelle Persiano, one of the volunteers, stood by, eyeing the wolfdogs with affection. When one growled at an unwelcome hug from a visitor, a woman conceded that the powerful teeth it bared were “scary to look at,” but she couldn’t seem to take her eyes off of it. The visitors’ oohs and aahs belied equal parts awe at the yellow-eyed, wolfy creatures and uneasiness at their strength. The Farm is a rescue facility for wolfdogs – hybrids bred from wolves and dogs – and home to just under 20 animals. On a recent sunny afternoon, a handful of volunteers led a tour group around Howling Woods Farm, in rural New Jersey. ![]()
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