Grrrrrr

Back in the early 90's, before we had Teh Terraists, we had Evil Dog Breeds that wanted to Kill Your Family. Pitbulls, Rotties, Dobies, even German Shepherds, and especially the exotic wolf hybrid were all potential Canine Terrorists. The media routinely jumped on the Bad Dog Bandwagon, running liver-quivering accounts of babies torn asunder by Evil Al-Canida operatives.

I used to raise wolf hybrids back then, a pursuit which entailed (for me, anyway) optimizing my knowledge of both domestic dogs and wolves, and I came to realize that even in the late-20th century, there was a mindblowing amount of dark-ages bullshit floating around about wolves (and by proxy, wolf hybrids). One thing wolves rarely if ever do is attack humans -- certainly they do it a lot less than the aforementioned domestic dog breeds. So this is the kind of hysteria-mongering news story that used to drive me apeshit because it contributed to negative wolf mythology (and made my neighbours give me weird looks): "Family dog saves children from wolves"... SHRIEEEK!

"With their protruding rib cages and shrunken bodies, there was no question the wolves were hungry.

Shadow saw them almost immediately; the children and their parents didn't.

In the dusky northern light three days before Christmas, two Fort Nelson families came dangerously close to two hungry wolves, until the family dog, Shadow, narrowly averted disaster.

The wolves appeared quietly at about 3:30 p.m. on Dec. 22, as darkness was creeping in on the winter wonderland 100 kilometres east of Fort Nelson, where the families were tobogganing.

About 30 metres away, a sleighful of three children - one aged four and the others aged three - were being happily towed along the base of a hill by an all-terrain vehicle." [...]

Okay, right here I'd suggest that towing kids on a toboggan with an ATV probably puts them in more danger than any wolf. So Teh Stupid in this story starts with humans who've become so fucking lazy that they can't pull a sled themselves like my parents did. But anyway...

"Father Kyle Keays was oblivious to the danger until he suddenly heard his wife's shriek from the top of the hill.

Shadow, their Rottweiler-cross, had broken from the grasp of Keays' wife and was bounding down the hill toward the wolves, who were moving in toward the children.

"I looked back and saw my dog intercept the lead wolf - there were two of them. They were heading towards the kids and the dog came in," said 36-year-old Keays, who was riding on a separate ATV.

Being too far from the children, Keays headed to his nearby work camp to grab a rifle." [...]

"Keays, a licensed hunter, followed the tracks, found the wolf about 300 metres away and shot her."

And they all lived happily ever after! (Except for the wolves, whose hides will probably soon grace this guy's living room wall.)

What the wolves were really up to is debatable -- if they were that thin and only travelling in a pair, they might well have been looking for food. But it's highly unlikely they were "stalking" the kids -- probably they were just hoping to find something tasty amid the garbage that humans inevitably leave in their wake. Whatever they were doing, if their presence was upsetting these human interlopers, one would think the idea of leaving the area might have occurred to someone? Nah, no need to be inconvenienced, just shoot whatever's bothering you, problem solved. Jerks!