Xa'at, Danny L (Anchorage: live, fences, store)

[DannyL]

news flash for the rest of the world....

this is Alaska, not Yellowstone.
I guess if a bear on the Katmai kills a dog or a tourist we should go out and kill all the bears.
In Juneau most of us agree to just leave him the hell alone, but it's the tourist and suburban new-comers who are being a pain.

[cobolt]

When I was up there, the locals I knew left Romeo alone. We could hear him howling sometimes when we were on the lake with the xc skiis, but we just went about our business.

[Dusty Rhodes]

Originally Posted by Barkingowl

Is a pug considered to be dinner or an appetizer?

It has it's own special classification, a "canapug"

[Alice2]

Originally Posted by Rance

You don't think he can live in harmony with humans?

It isn't that, it is that he is a lone wolf an a terribly overpopulated area, as far as wolves who live in wilderness go. Two strikes against him right there, plus all the interaction he's already had with people and dogs, I mean, just what do people expect to happen to him now?

Animals and humans can living harmony together, but when the animals are wild it is the HUMANS who adapt to the WILD habitat, not the wild animals adapting to being wild at the town's backyard doggy-pooh walk area.

Like Admiralty, for instance, the few who live out there are living around wild animals in THEIR wild habitat, they can live free and be animals without being affected by the presence of humans in their area.

[Metlakatla]

Animals and humans can living harmony together, but when the animals are wild it is the HUMANS who adapt to the WILD habitat, not the wild animals adapting to being wild at the town's backyard doggy-pooh walk area.

Nah. Actually wolves initiated their own evolutionary process into domestic canines by adapting to human settlements.

Danny and Cobolt are absolutely right; just leave him the hell alone.

[Barkingowl]

Originally Posted by Dusty Rhodes

It has it's own special classification, a "canapug"

[karibear]

Originally Posted by User 2

If you believe what most so-called Alaskans tell you, all their dogs are half wolf anyway...
.
..

Except the ones that are 97%. I knew some people 30-odd years ago who claimed to have a pair of wolves. My ex and I went out to see them, and the 'wolves' turned out to be a toy poodle and some kind of terrier. Lady who owned them said they told the dogs they were wolves because it helped their self-esteem!

Give me a break, dogs don't worry about self-esteem, people do. And I've known a couple of those 97%-ers, and having been brought up from blind puppyhood, they considered the family who had them their pack. A friend of the family was welcome, if not, then not. But they were a whole lot less dangerous than abused/fighting pits, and I like pits, I just don't like seeing them abused that way, either.

[Barkingowl]

Originally Posted by karibear

Except the ones that are 97%. I knew some people 30-odd years ago who claimed to have a pair of wolves. My ex and I went out to see them, and the 'wolves' turned out to be a toy poodle and some kind of terrier. Lady who owned them said they told the dogs they were wolves because it helped their self-esteem!

[karibear]

Originally Posted by DannyL

news flash for the rest of the world....

this is Alaska, not Yellowstone.
I guess if a bear on the Katmai kills a dog or a tourist we should go out and kill all the bears.
In Juneau most of us agree to just leave him the hell alone, but it's the tourist and suburban new-comers who are being a pain.

Oh yeah. We had a roomer about 10 years ago who was at a beach party. This was a couple years after some dim bulb decided it would be a good idea to fence the town dump, BTW, so the bears were wandering all over town instead of hanging out at the dump, which was quite aways out of town. Anyway, this beach party was below the dump area, down a gravel road. He'd left his truck parked at the top and walked down, then when he was ready to leave, he started walking back up. Out of nowhere, something slammed him to the ground and stood on his back, then he saw three cubs skitter across the road in front of him. He said once the cubs were gone, the sow stepped off and took off after them, and he was never in his life more grateful for anything, but that she was a people-savvy old sow who just wanted to make sure the cubs got where she wanted them, instead of seeing him as a threat. He ended up with a couple cracked ribs and still has a few scars on his back where the claws dug in to balance her, but she made no attempt whatsoever to actually harm him.

At the other end of town, an equal ways out, there's a small community that has half a dozen or so dumpsters set off where the whole community can use them. Those have a lot of bears visiting, too, but it's also closer to the Coast Guard base, and it's incredible how many people will show up with cameras to take 'bear pictures' to send back home. As of yet, no one has been attacked - that I know of - but it's been a close thing a few times when the amateur photographers start ringing in the bears, instead of leaving them plenty of room to get away.

[Dusty Rhodes]

It really does bother me, I mean, when a human being (ostensibly the more intelligent critter) goes seriously stupid with a wild animal, the animal is made to pay the price for human idiocy, sometimes the human also pays the price and when they do, it is not chalked up to "natural selection", authorities call it a bad __________ (fill in the blank yourself) and the animal, if it can be found, is usually destroyed. Punishing nature for being natural? Hell of a system we have nowadays. Perhaps the State of Alaska should get all visitors to sign a release statement that asserts that "terminally stupid" is a valid cause of death in the state and is not considered just cause to go out and destroy the animal that was just following its' instincts.