Wolf Haven offers better life for captive wolves

For the first 10 years of his life, a 3-foot chain kept poor Penn hooked to a post, his world confined to a small circle, his life monotonous and so, so sad.

But then in November rescuers gave the black wolf a new home at Wolf Haven near Tenino, where he is housed with 5-year-old Ellie, another black wolf who had been kept as a pet. They are allowed to roam around a half acre enclosed by a 10-foot-tall fence.

“We didn’t actually know that they looked exactly alike until essentially they got here,” said Danielle Ransier, our tour guide from Olympia who lived near my sister while growing up. “He is involved in a legal case.”

Unlike the animals in federal wolf recovery breeding programs, the rescue wolves are given vaccines and hysterectomies or vasectomies and not allowed to breed to protect their health.

“We’re their retirement spot,” she said.

They slowly introduced the two wolves with a fence spread through the middle of their enclosure. They pawed at each other from separate sides, tails wagging, until it was removed.

“They were very excited when we opened it up,” Danielle said. “Penn had a little bit of a rough time settling in. He was really stressed, so we took it very, very slow with him.”

Ellie helped calm him down.

“I kind of say he was catching up on 10 years of sleep,” Danielle said. “We see that with a lot of rescue animals from really neglectful backgrounds. Once they realize they’re in a safe space, they just want to sleep.”

Another animal, Mesa, had been chained to a tree, which tends to happen when people can’t handle their animals anymore.

I’ve lived near Wolf Haven International for most of the four decades it has operated, but I never visited until last month. My sister bought tickets for friends visiting from Colorado, but when a rattlesnake bit their dog while they were hiking, the husband stayed home and tended to their beloved pet (who recovered). That left my sister with an extra ticket, so she invited me to join them.

Our fantastic guide, who graduated from Olympia High School in 2018 and earned her bachelor’s in wildlife management and animal behavior from Oregon State University in 2021, started our tour at the pet cemetery, which opened in the early 2000s. Today, wolves are cremated to save room.

“Unfortunately, we specialize in geriatric or extremely old animals, so we do lose quite a few,” she said. “We did just have a wave of losses.”

A bronze statue nearby depicts the founding wolf — Blackjack, who died in May 1989. He was buried on the 82 acres of prairieland dotted with Mima Mounds, geologic formations some say were created by earthquakes, glacial flooding, Sasquatches, giant pocket gophers, or Unidentified Flying Objects.

“You can believe any of them, because nothing’s been proved correct,” said Danielle, who began working at Wolf Haven as a volunteer intern in 2019.

While living in Colorado in 1978, Steve and Linda Kuntz purchased a wolf pup as a pet but soon discovered raising Blackjack proved more difficult than handling a dog. They dove into learning about wolves and founded Wolf Haven International in 1982 to create a place for people to relinquish captive wolves to a safe environment.

Since its founding, Wolf Haven has rescued more than 325 captive-born wolves and wolf dogs, giving them forever homes where they can live in safety and security. Thirty-nine resided at Wolf Haven in August when we visited; several older animals had died recently.

Howls greeted us as we ventured into the sanctuary. As she gave us a tour, Danielle shared stories of each of the rescued wolves.

She also explained that since 2003, the sanctuary has contracted with federal agencies to breed red wolves to release into the wild. In the 1970s, before the advent of recovery programs, the red wolf population on the East Coast had dropped to just 17.

“We had our first red wolf released into the wild from Wolf Haven,” she said. “Not only was she from Wolf Haven, but she was born here too. We’re hopeful that the population will start to grow again.”

Wildlife officials work with ranchers, farmers and hunters to minimize conflicts. Washington state has at least 230 wolves in the wild, she said, down from 260 a year ago, with 43 packs east of the Cascades and 18 breeding pairs.

The property around the sanctuary with marshland, forests, and prairies serves as a buffer. Black bear, cougar, elk, deer, and coyotes pass through. Endangered pocket gophers live there. So do hawks, eagles, and ravens.

“We didn’t actually have ravens on this property until the wolves moved in,” Danielle said. “Wolves and ravens have a symbiotic relationship. Out in the wild, ravens will find an animal or a carcass, but they can’t actually crack open the carcass on their own. The skin is too thick. So they’ll lead wolves to food. The wolves will crack it open, eat what they want, and then the ravens can eat the leftovers.”

A second location in Montana, donated to Wolf Haven in 2018, is home to 18 or 19 gray wolves that people were trying to rescue. The animals will live out their lives in the only home they have known.

Wolf Haven has three fences — one at the entrance gate, the sanctuary fence, and separate enclosure fences. Only one wolf ever escaped an enclosure, and then only because a tree toppled and knocked down the fence. They bribed her back inside.

“That’s the closest we’ve had to an escape,” Danielle said. “These guys don’t tend to try to escape. They see it as their house, and we let them do whatever they want.”

When the wolves howled, the tour guide quit talking, letting the animals share their story.

“We try to be really respectful of their space and their feelings,” she said. “We’re entering their home and respect it as their home.”

Sometimes the wolves hide from the people touring the sanctuary; other times, they perform by howling or pacing before the fence. Little Foot, who was a pet for a time, hid from us, but her partner, Luca, a white animal with a bright pink nose who is 95 percent wolf, howled from a platform. In Washington, people can legally own a wolf as long as it’s at least 2 percent dog, although rules vary by county.

Danielle explained that a breeder in Illinois owned Luca and 14 other animals, raising them for their thick fluffy pelts. State officials removed the wolves and sent Luca and one other animal to Wolf Haven.

“He’s one of our bigger animals,” Danielle said. “He’s just over 100 pounds, and in the winter, he is our fluffiest animal.”

They run DNA tests on animals with unknown backgrounds. In the wild, wolves feed on deer, elk, and moose, so Wolf Haven tries to mimic that diet. They feed the wolves four times a week, tossing chunks of frozen meat, drumsticks, watermelon, and even popsicles during the summer over the high fence. Other times it’s road kill or leftovers from local butchers.

On Thanksgiving they tossed turkey drumsticks over the fence to feed the wolves—and sometimes an entire turkey.

“And then potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and sometimes cheeses,” Danielle said. “Last year they got bits of charcuterie boards—meats and cheeses. They get one Brussels sprout, and every year, we always get one Brussels sprout back.”

Salmon tossed among staff at Pike’s Place Market can’t be sold, so it’s donated to Wolf Haven, where they deep freeze it to kill bacteria in the fish’s gut that sickens wolves. They also receive organs, tongues, and other parts of hunted animals that people don’t generally eat and feed those to the wolves.

“We don’t ever try to fling a full deer,” she said. “We can’t stop live animals from going in, but we don’t ever purposely give them live animals.”

The wolves are feasters and fasters who eat 15 to 20 pounds of food a week.

Shasta and Grayling are both full wolves. Shasta, named after Mount Shasta for her beauty, was paired with Grayling, who arrived from the Red River Zoo where he wasn’t getting along with other adult wolves.

We saw Billie with the deformed tooth, who was privately owned in California, and Layla. Both recently lost their companions.

“They get pretty lonely when they’re by themselves,” Danielle said. “They do go through grieving processes, just like people. Layla actually slept where Tecumseh, known as T, passed away for like three days. She didn’t want to come out. She didn’t want to eat, which is very unusual for her. And you do see a lot of animals pass away back to back from each other.”

Some of the wolves are jumpers. Others are diggers.

“Layla actually almost dug a tree to the point where it was starting to fall over,” Danielle said.

They’re given water buckets and pools to cool off on hot days.

In the federal breeding programs to recover red wolf and gray wolf populations, male and female animals are put together in hopes they’ll birth successful litters. Animals are released into the wild wearing tracking collars.
We also saw Hodari who has a genetic trait that prompts him to stick out his tongue. He also likes to ham it up before crowds, Danielle said. “He has really little to no fear of people.”

A female red wolf, Nash, has had a dozen successful pups, Danielle said. Her son Finch, born at Wolf Haven in 2016, sired red wolf pups in the wilds of eastern North Carolina, but it won’t be considered a successful litter until the pups survive through December.

People can sponsor a wolf and receive regular updates on them. To donate, visit the website at https://wolfhaven.org/.

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Julie McDonald, a personal historian from Toledo, may be reached at memoirs@chaptersoflife.com.