The Wolves Of Saint Francis
Once upon a time in the city of Gubbio, in the Italian province of Perugia, the town folk began whispering among themselves of a wolf seen in the fields that had been coming in and attacking their livestock. It didn’t take long for those whispers to become full-fledged screams as he began attacking humans — and eventually chose to dine solely on them.
Gubbio had a real problem on its hands. The wolf lurked just outside the city gates preying on anyone who ventured past them alone and soon the town was under siege, as no weapons did the wolf any harm and anyone who attempted to destroy him was horrifically killed.
A local friar named Francis stepped in, telling the citizens of Gubbio he could make the wolf cease
…show more content…
Besides the few who found homes with our ancestors thousands of years ago and eventually became the pet dogs we love today, wolves have been known as the ultimate predators – smarter than dogs (and some humans), master escape artists and fierce hunters.
One would be then be surprised to learn that there have only been five to ten actual documented wolf attacks in history — mostly because of their predisposition to avoid people at all costs.
In the urban wild, a designation as a wolf or wolf dog is a death sentence for any stray animal. Though Saint Francis maintains a very positive relationship with animal control, usually if a dog is found to have many wolf-like traits it will be euthanized.
The sanctuary houses wolves of a wide variety of content — in wolf-speak high content and low content refer to how much “wolf” the animal actually is. It ranges from Sable, who is 100 percent dog to Mystery, who is 100 percent wolf.
Saint Francis aims to educate people about the differences between dogs and wolves – from the physical differences: wolves’ snouts point up, they have yellow eyes and black nails, smaller ears, etc. — to misconceptions about keeping them as pets: always a bad idea for wolves, they are not able to be socialized and are at their core wild