KETCHIKAN — North Tongass residents are being warned to keep a close watch on their pets after two wolf attacks in the area. One dog was killed and another injured.
The attacks took place between 12 mile and 16 mile of North Tongass Highway, according to the vet who treated one of the dogs, Marna Hall, and state wildlife biologist Boyd Porter, who works for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
On Sunday, a dog was attacked by a single wolf near home on the highway close to Cascade Road, but not in that neighborhood. Porter is investigating the attacks, while Hall was called to the home after the attack.
A dog sitter, a young boy, was walking the 93-pound dog when it spotted the wolf lurking nearby, according to both Hall and Porter.
The dog got loose of the sitter and broke for the wolf, which then attacked.
“I don’t know if the boy was screaming or what happened that triggered the wolf to leave,” Hall said. “Truthfully, when most domestic animals fight, it’s really, really hard to get those animals apart.”
What concerns Porter is that the wild animal stayed near the scene of the fight even after the dog and wolf were separated.
The boy called his father, who came from a few doors down with a pistol and took a shot at the wolf, which only then was scared away, Porter said.
“It wasn’t afraid of their voices or their human scent,” he said. “We’ll go out and look around and see how much wolf sign is in the area.”
He said it could be that there’s a wolf den near the area or that the wolf was a young adult recently pushed out of a pack.
The dog “recovered really well,” Hall said, but required a “significant amount of sutures in his mouth.” It also had broken bones and lost a canine tooth.
The veterinarian, who owns Island to Island Veterinary Clinic, said she’s only treated one wolf attack in her 10 years in the Ketchikan area. She sees injuries from bears more often.
A light gray wolf was photographed by the North Tongass roadside this month, but the wolf that attacked the dog near Cascade Road on Sunday had a dark color.
Another North Tongass dog wasn’t so lucky. Hall said she spoke to a different client who said their 110-pound dog was killed by a pair of wolves approximately a week and a half ago.
The dog was killed at a home close to Settlers Cove.
Porter said that without knowing more about the wolves involved in both attacks, it’s difficult to know their motivation — whether they’re protecting territory or looking for food.
He warned pet owners to not let dogs out of sight on walks or to walk them on leash all the time “at this point until we figure out what’s going on with this behavior.”
He also advised dog owners to keep their animals indoors at night and to not leave them outside on a tether.
“It’s definitely something for people to pay attention to and not take real lightly,” Porter said. “Not that it’s going to kill people, but certainly the potential that they may kill more dogs.”
He requested residents report wolf sightings and any pictures captured to the Ketchikan office of Fish and Game.
• This story originally appeared in the Ketchikan Daily News.
