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State hands wolf-dog regulation burden to counties Pat Longmore plays with her 8-year-old wolf-malamute hybrid, Pagan, at her Wimer home. Photo by Bob Pennell Saturday Apr 11, 1998 at 2:00 AM Feb 16, 2011 at 7:32 AM BILL KETTLER WIMER -- Pat Longmore won't have to send money to Salem anymore to get a permit for Pagan, her wolf-malemute cross. The state Department of Agriculture has given up efforts to regulate wolf-dog hybrids. Beginning next year, Oregon counties will have the responsibility for regulating wolf-dog crosses. State officials say the change will give local animal-control officers more power to deal with problem animals on the basis of their behavior instead of their breed. Breed-specific regulations are fraught with problems, said State Veterinarian Dr. Andrew Clark, If an animal is nice and well-behaved, fine. If it is a nasty, mean and vicious animal, be it a pit bull, Rottweiler, German shepherd, cocker spaniel or wolf hybrid, then it is a mean and nasty animal that should be treated as such. Jackson County's animal control advisory committee has started meeting to draft a dangerous-dog law that will give local animal-control officers authority to handle problem canines. State rules now require wolf hybrids to be confined in fenced enclosures except when they are transported for veterinary care. Any new county dog law will maintain those strict penning requirements, said Colleen Macuk, manager of the Jackson County Animal Shelter. The new law also should clarify ambiguous animal-control laws that have caused problems in the past, said Dr. Douglas Phillips, a Medford veterinarian who serves on the county's veterinary advisory committee. We were at the crazy point where state law says if a dog chases a horse it can be put down, but if a dog bites a person, short of a civil suit, there's little you can do, said Phillips. The Jackson County Board of Commissioners ultimately would have to approve the committee's proposal for any dangerous-dog law. Longmore and her husband, Don, who have owned 8-year-old Pagan since she was a pup, said strict penning requirements for wolf hybrids are important because the big, powerful animals can be unpredictable. You have to know they're wild, said Pat Longmore. They can go (out of control) just like that. State officials tried to regulate wolf hybrids since 1992 under Oregon's exotic animal laws. But the program failed because there was no way to say with certainty that an animal was a wolf-dog hybrid. Genetics is like a grab bag, said Janice Kohler-Matznick, a canine researcher from Central Point. You could have a dog that looked like a Siberian husky or a malemute and behaved like a wolf. Many people used the law's ambiguity to ignore permitting and penning requirements. State officials have estimated there are at the very least hundreds of wolf-dog hybrids in Oregon, but just 63 people had obtained permits for 131 animals. The easiest option is to call (hybrids) dogs, said agriculture department spokesman Bruce Pokarney, and if they show bad behavior, treat them like any dog that shows bad behavior. Some people worry that easing restrictions on wolf-dog hybrids might make them more attractive. This is not something the average person should have, said Kohler-Matznick. — listing them as dogs, that's encouraging people (to have them) and I think that's a sin.