Students dance with wolves in El Pomar

Photo: Phoebe Parker-Shames

Photo: Phoebe Parker-Shames

Photo: Phoebe Parker-Shames

Photo: Phoebe Parker-Shames

On April 29, students got a chance to get up close and personal with some of the world’s most dangerous and intriguing animals: wolves.

Mission Wolf, a rehabilitation center for wolves, brought three of the animals to campus to raise awareness about conservation efforts and to offer students the opportunity to volunteer at the sanctuary.

Students had two opportunities to meet the carnivorous canines. The first was at 4:30 p.m. in the main gym of El Pomar Sports Center, which received the larger audience and included students, elementary school kids and adults. The second session was at 7 p.m. in Gaylord Hall.  

Kent Weber, owner of the Mission Wolf sanctuary, spoke to the audience about the animals he brought to campus and the common misconceptions that humans have about them. Misconceptions, he said, exist because most people have little knowledge of wolves and do not live in areas where they are wild.

“Humans are experience-oriented,” Weber said.

The two main reactions Weber said he normally encounters are fear about the animals they have always been told are dangerous, or the opposite: a desire to keep them as pets and playthings. This is likely due to the wolves’ resemblance to dogs. Weber has taken in several wolves that had been adopted as pets and then abandoned. 

“When they grow up people can’t take care of them,” Weber said.

Weber and Mission Wolf are able to take care of only a limited number of homeless wolves because they do not have the resources to house the hundreds of wolves that are taken in by humans and then abandoned when they become too big and volatile to be good pets. 

“We turn homeless wolves down by the dozens,” Weber said, explaining that the vast numbers of abandoned wolves is one of his major motivations for trying to educate people about the animals.

During the talk, handlers brought the wolves into the gym and allowed them to wander into the audience while on leashes.  Weber explained more about wolves in general as the people in the gym marveled at the creatures. He said that with the current state of the wolf population they could die out without human efforts. He emphasized the need for people to understand that wolves are not pets, not matter how closely they may be related to dogs.

“We don’t know how long they’ll be here if we don’t shape up so we should enjoy them while we can,” said sophomore Bernadette Stocker, who helped organize the event.

Weber encouraged students to volunteer at Mission Wolf. Many CC students have been involved with the group, and some NSO trips have even worked at the sanctuary.

Said Weber, “We have had some of our best staff come from this college.