Agenda - 03-21-1990 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

• This is not an application for a permit to house a wild animal in Orange County, but a request for a conditional exemption from this ordinance for very sound and solid reasons. Our dog Katula fits neither the definition of a wild wolf nor a wild wolf crossbreed, according to the Orange County ordinance or the Random House Dictionary of the English Language. WILD 1 - living in a state of nature. not tamed or domesticated 2 - growing or produced without cultivation or the care of man 3 - uncultivated, uninhabited 4 - uncivilized or barbarous Katula fits no recognized (or sensible) definition of wild, destructive or aggressive. The reasons: • Katula was not born a wild animal. • Her ancestors can be traced back through 20+ generations of domestic pets. • She has been hand-raised from the age of 10 days by men, women and children • She has been socialized and in training from the age of 4 weeks. • She has been a house-pet from the age of 4 weeks -- with a macaw and a cat -- neither of which are caged. • Even under quite adverse conditions she has never been aggressive. • No one who met her before or during this recent episode, including the Exec. Dir., the Kennel Master, and a number of APS attendants, have reported her as being anything other than a "nice, friendly r.Qg.." • Her further development into a dog of exceptional capability is dependant upon her continued socialization and training--and it has stopped in this now lengthening period of disruption and dislocation. • The trouble with the individuals calling the animal control officers is, we believe, a form of harrassment and retaliation for our having taken these same individuals to court on another matter. Katula's grandmother is a direct descendant of Count, one of Gordon Smith's first rescued wolf cubs back in the late 1920s. (Not all her ancestors are so distinguished, however; one of her ancestors was rescued from what would have been a short life on an Alaskan fur farm.) Gordon Smith was the founder and past president of the IOWOLFERS Association. It is he who literally wrote the book on domesticating wolf/dogs. SLAVE TO A PACK OF WOLVES remains the resource book on the proper breeding, rearing, socializing, training, care and physical maintenance of wolf/dogs. It was Gordon Smith himself that began Katula's long domestication process -- 70 plus years of tireless love and devotion. World-wide, Smith's associates and disciples carry-on and add to his work. One such is Randel Bowen, Katula's breeder, who is Founder/President of the Carolina Wolfers Association and the WOLFER'S JOURNAL, as well as V.P. of the Iredell county Humane Society. Both the Association and the Journal are non-profit entities devoted to the perpetuation of the standards set by Gordon Smith and others over the years -- the kinds of standards which produced such a sweet and loving animal as Katula. It was Randy's wonderful family who brought her and her brothers into their home at 10 days of age, bottle feeding them every four hours around the clock until we took over at four weeks of age. Indeed, we met Katula when she was 11 days old, nursing a bottle and dressed in doll clothes while snuggled into the arms of Randy and Cathy's seven year old daughter. After better than a year of careful thought and consideration: talking with owners, visiting breeders, observing and testing litters, we chose Randy as our breeder and were screened and qualified by him in turn. After four weeks of preparation my wife and I picked up Katula on our wedding day and spent our honeymoon bonding with our baby fuzz ball.