Brazen wolf pack menaces Wrigley
'It was only seconds, but it seemed like forever'
Roxanna Thompson
Northern News Services
Published Thursday, December 12, 2013
PEHDZEH KI/WRIGLEY
One Wrigley resident says the wolves near the community are becoming brazen.
A pack of wolves attacked Wes Pellissey's two dogs, Diesel, left, and Sydney outside the family's house in Wrigley on Dec. 1. Pellissey shot one of the wolves after Diesel badly injured it. - photo courtesy of Tamara Pellissey
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Wes Pellissey and his two dogs had a close encounter with the wolves on Dec. 1, which ended in the death of one of the animals and minor injuries to Diesel, Pellissey and his family's Staffordshire Terrier. Pellissey had just let Diesel and Sydney, a German Shepherd, outside around 10 a.m. when he heard the dogs return to the house's deck barking erratically. Pellissey could also hear what sounded like other dogs on the deck.
Pellissey opened the door to find a wolf on either side of the door, less than a meter and half from him, flanking his dogs. He could see another six wolves in the yard.
"There were wolves everywhere," he said.
Pellissey began yelling, which caused the wolves on the deck, and the others to run into the clearing beside his house. The family's dogs chased them, but then the wolves stopped and stood their ground.
Diesel began fighting two of the wolves and when a third tried to enter the fray Sydney took in on. Pellissey could see that Diesel had one wolf by the neck, but that the other was biting his head and neck.
"It was only seconds, but it seemed like forever," he said about the pace of the events.
Pellissey had a rifle inside the house, but he had to get the trigger lock off and load it. Not wanting to hit his dogs, Pellissey fired at one of the wolves on the edge of the pack.
With the first shot the wolves perked up, he said. A second shot had all of them, except the two with Diesel running. After Sydney attacked the wolf that was biting Diesel it also left.
After quickly putting on a jacket and boots Pellissey ran outside. Realizing that the remaining wolf was badly injured Pellissey shot it.
Pellissey said he wasn't worried about himself, but rather for his family's pets
"I was afraid for my dogs because my dogs are part of my family," he said.
Diesel, who normally isn't aggressive, sustained a cut near his eye and puncture wounds on his muzzle behind his nose.
"He's just like a big teddy bear. He loves people and he loves kids," Pellissey said.
Wolves are often active near Wrigley in the early winter when it gets cold and they start to get hungry, but they aren't normally this brave, said Pellissey.
"This is pretty scary for people," he said.
Pellissey's dogs aren't the first ones that the wolves have attacked.
"There are a lot of dogs missing in town," he said about strays.
Two strays that Pellissey was looking after for a friend disappeared from his yard two days before the attack, never to be seen again. The wolves have a den on the south side of the Wrigley airport along the riverbank. Pellissey's house is less than two kilometers from the den.
Up until he killed one of them, and possibly mortally wounded another, Pellissey said the wolves had gone unchallenged. All except one or two of the wolves looked young.
"I think it was a learning experience for them," he said.
Carl Lafferty, the regional superintendent for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, was planning to send a wildlife officer to Wrigley on Dec. 9 or 10 to assess the situation and possibly place snares for the wolves. Originally, Lafferty said he was hoping that local trappers would take care of the situation, but he subsequently heard the wolves in the pack look mangy and, therefore, not desirable for their pelts.
In most cases, the department would encourage local trappers to harvest the animals instead of shooting them, he said. A well-handled wolf pelt that includes the pads, claws, lips, eyelids and ears without their cartilage will receive a $400 advance through the Genuine Mackenzie Valley Furs program. If the pelts sells for more than that at a sale the trapper gets the extra amount.
If the wolf pack at Wrigley is young it is likely hanging around the community because there are a lot of stray dogs to prey on, Lafferty said, and because the pack isn't strong enough to take down a moose or caribou.
