Female trainer attacked by wolves

06:06 PM Mountain Standard Time on Thursday, March 17, 2005


By 3TV and azfamily.com staff



A female trainer was attacked Thursday by two wolves at the Out of Africa Wildlife Park in Camp Verde.


Park officials say the wolves have been with them for more than seven years and have never shown any aggression. But the animals turned vicious on their trainer, causing serious injuries to her arms and legs.


According to Native Air spokesman Mike Todd, the woman was flown by Native Air to John C. Lincoln's North Mountain Hospital in Phoenix with critical, life-threatening injuries. Although she suffered substantial blood loss, the woman is reportedly in stable condition.


The trainer has only been identified by park officials as "Heather." Park officials say they are investigating the attack.


The park is located at 4020 N. Cherry Road in Camp Verde. The park claims to give visitors an up close and personal experience with the animals.

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Handler wants wolves kept alive

11:11 AM Mountain Standard Time on Monday, March 21, 2005


By 3TV Staff


After nearly dying in an attack by two wolves, an Arizona woman is now working to keep them alive.

Woman attacked by wolves in stable condition

Female trainer attacked by wolves
Heather Mueller was working at an Out of Africa Wildlife Park in Camp Verde when two North American gray wolves attacked her on March 17. It was in a new habitat area where the wolves had recently been released.

Mueller suffered major injuries to her arms and legs, and spent hours in surgery.

She said despite what happened, she does not want the wolves to be hurt.

There have been several humans attacked by wolves. But all these attacks have occured in a captive enviroment. There is no recorded incidence of a human attack by wolves in the wild that I am aware of.

If yoy really want to learn about wolf behavior, read: "Three Amongst The Wolves".

Last week a woman was attacked by a coyote here on our river trail. It happened by one of the ponds. The coyote actually bit the woman in the calf. Some people that noticed the attack were able to chase it away. The bite was not too serious. I wonder if she will need rabie shots?

This time of year coyotes are rearing their young. The rangers believe the attack might have been by a female protecting her family.

We are going to have to be more on guard on our nature walks.

[This message was edited by lizziedog1 on 05-01-05 at 03:20 PM.]

WOLF/DOG are cool I own on half Rottweiller half Wolf and hes the coolest nicest dog ever

How old is your wolf hydred?

How long have you had it?

How does he get along with other dogs?

my dad once had a wolf Hybred. it was a great dog and never did anything bad,(exept for kill a cat ) but was never agressive tword other dogs or people.

Unless one has had experience with working with wolves, I don't think it would be wise to get a wolf/dog mix.

Personally, I want experience working with wolves. That's one of my goals in life: intern/volunteer at Wolf Park in Indiana (I realize the wolve are not wild but it would still be experience with working with them). Wolves are the only sole animal that can capture my facination for long periods of time. I'm not liking all the negative input about wolves, but I do realize that it happens, though wolves are just as afraid of us as we are of them.

On the issue of wolf-dogs, it usually depends on the percentage of wolf in the animal and conditions the animal is raised in. I'm sure that many wolf-dog owners have raised these dogs to not attack. They can be trained like any other animal, it would just take more of it and more time due to the wild nature of these animals.

My advice would be to not get one. They can be unpredictable in their actions.

It doesn't matter if they can be trained not to attack. It doesn't matter if they can be really sweet.

Wolves are not pets and not tools for people wanting wolfdogs!

Here are some excellent resources for you pertaining to wolf-dog crosses:

http://www.wolfdancer.org/wdresources/ http://www.wolfdogalliance.org/ http://www.wolfdogs.com/training_feeding.html
http://www.phoenixexotics.org

As long as you plan on properly caring for the animal, ensure that he/she doesn't escape, and is legal, go for it! After reading some of the other posts here, I seem to be the one of the more tolerant people on this thread. Why oppose traditional BSL but support anti-exotic ownership for the very same reasons condemned in the former case? Another example of "animal rights" activist hypocrisy.