Home Page / Wolf Centre / Adopt-a-Wolf Membership / WWUK Wolves / Join Wolf Watch UK / Visiting The Sanctuary / Payments & Donations / Contact Us / Wolf Videos / Q&A / History / Wilderness Goods For Sale / Notice Board / Meet The Team / What People Have Said / Photography Days / Links / Wolf News / Loopy Files / Notes From Tony / Wolf Learning Course Q. I cannot see a telephone number or location details on the web site? Because we never publish such details. The only way to contact the project is via email and post, this is a deliberate policy to help protect our rescued wolves and the privacy of the sanctuary. We are a private membership organisation only and not open to the public. Members with approved Visitor/Guest passes will obtain the information they need to visit the Wolf Centre when they receive their passes and never before. Another secondary reason is that we operate almost the entire project via volunteer staff (all funds go to our wolves), working in their spare time in evenings and weekends and so we do not provide normal office hours or service and nor would we wish to. Our priority and work is for our rescued wolves, a fact that not only distinguishes us from other groups, but continues to attract and maintain our current membership’s excellent support. Q. Why do you discourage visitors to the centre who are below 5ft? Because of the inherent nature of wolves the theme of dominance is never far from their mind. This means that small people such as children and others can inadvertently trigger a dominant reaction from the wolves which would be dangerous for the visitor. Although such an incident has never happened to us and indeed we have had socialised wolves which seemingly adored small children, we have also seen wolf behaviour which reflects this concern. It has therefore been decided to issue this advice in order to prevent future disappointment as we will not entertain any such risks whatsoever. Q. How did you (Tony) get into wolves? A fascination with foxes at an early age, along with a love of wild things and places. Somehow the wolf represents wilderness and nature’s secret places. Q. How often do you feed the wolves? The simple answer is when they are hungry. By recognising the behavioural traits they can be fed when they need to be. There are no set feeding times and places, and feeding can often depend on the availability of food, just like the wild. We aspire whenever possible to maintaining a natural approach to the care of our animals, human routines can impact on the natural states of animals and we prefer our resident wolves to not be ‘checking their watches’ at 5.00pm every day as some appear to in zoos and other collections. Where possible we prefer to keep the wolves alert and aware so their minds are kept more active and their lives are less routine and monotonous. Q. How long have you kept wolves? Since 1980 (for further details see the history section, listed above). Q. What is the most important thing that you have learned about wolves? That these animals and others like them should not be kept in captivity. WWUK’s only justification for this is that the majority of the wolves here would have been euthanised had we not been around to "rescue" them. Q. How is WWUK financed? Through membership, the ‘Adopt-a-Wolf Membership’ scheme and personal input of the director’s own money. Also, some one-off projects such as video work with the BBC Natural history unit, when the team enables a day’s video shoot to take place at the centre. Q. What do you think about re-introducing wolves back to the UK? Money can be spent more wisely in a different direction, when it comes to wolves in the UK. It is necessary to understand all the reasons why the wolf is extinct here, what has happened to the UK’s ecology since then and what kind of an environmental impact would occur if wolves were reintroduced. Finally and most importantly, given the high level of invasive monitoring, research and use of lethal force on perceived problem animals, what kind of freedom would the wolves themselves really enjoy here? The only good justification for attempting this with all the investment and suffering that would result, is a general political one of a western country actually practising what it preaches to the rest of the world. Q. Do you breed wolves? To date wolves at WWUK have come from "rescue" situations arising from captive packs associated with zoo closures, dominance fights or excess breeding. WWUK policy has always been not to breed, but the idea of structuring a pack from a pair of conservationally sensitive sub species and returning them to former habitat ranges abroad, has not been ruled out. Q. What do you feed the wolves on? Chicken and road-kill which can include rabbits, pheasants and occasional deer. Q. What do you think of wolf/dog hybrids? They are o.k. for the Inuit peoples of wilderness North America, but not for the uses people think they would be good for under more normal domestic situations. The wolf hybrid is a confused animal, with inherent wolf behaviour that shows up more often than in the domestic dog. It does not have the appearance of a wolf or the tractability of a dog, and can not be trusted around small children. Most wolf/dog hybrids found in the U.K. are scams, being mixes of northern hemisphere dog breeds with Alsations in order to give the appearance of a hybrid. They are then sold for large sums of money. A breed apart - some important differences between wolves and dogs: Wolves Doesn’t respond to forceful discipline. Will retreat or bite. Highly intelligent, brain is 30 percent larger than average dog. Needs 2-5 pounds of food a day and won’t share. No desire to please humans. Difficult to housebreak. Digs in yard, is destructive to furniture, won’t defecate in only one area and urinates to mark its territories. Skittish and fearful around humans it does not know. Not a good watchdog. Howls in the middle of the night. Will prey on smaller pets and instinct may be triggered by small children running or crying, although there is no verified case of a healthy, wild wolf attacking and killing a human adult. Dogs Allows humans to dominate, easier to train. Most breeds are people-friendly. Shares food and can live on dry dog food. Can be content as a single animal and stay outdoors. Can adjust to living in small homes or apartments. Q. Do you use a vet? Yes, but very infrequently. Wolves tend to deal with injuries and illness much better than the domestic dog (although they are susceptible to all the canine diseases and injuries, they tend to remain generally healthy). Wolves deal with internal and external parasites very efficiently. Puncture wounds from dominance fights heal many times faster than in domestic dogs.   Email WWUK Photography by Chris Cray / Tony Haighway © Wolf Watch UK Home Page / Wolf Centre / Adopt-a-Wolf Membership / WWUK Wolves / Join Wolf Watch UK / Visiting The Sanctuary / Payments & Donations / Contact Us / Wolf Videos / Q&A / History / Wilderness Goods For Sale / Notice Board / Meet The Team / What People Have Said / Photography Days / Links / Wolf News / Loopy Files / Notes From Tony / Wolf Learning Course