Dr. Michael W. Fox, being duly affirmed, depose and say the following
commentary with reference to the status of wolf-dog hybrids as domestic
rather than wild animals and concerning the appropriateness of giving them
a rabies vaccination approved for use in dogs and other domesticated animals:
I am a resident of the District of Columbia and serve as Vice President, Bioethics, for The Humane Society of the United States, a non-profit organization with over 784,000 members. I am also Director of the Society's new division, the Center for Respect of life and Environment. I hold a degree in Veterinary medicine from the Royal Veterinary College, London, England (1981) and have been awarded a Ph.D. in medicine (1967) and a D.Sc. in Ethology/animal behavior, (1976), by London University.
I have published many scientific articles and have also written and edited academic and popular books dealing with the behavior, sociability, genetics and development of wild, tame and domestic canines, including the dog, wolf, fox, coyote, wolf-dog and coyote-dog hybrids.
With reference to wolf-dog hybrids, I have bred and raised such animals and studied the behavior and development of half wolf and half dog crosses. It is my considered opinion that such animals cannot be considered to be wild animals in any sense of the word. Wild implies being raised in the wild without human contact and having a full genetic complement of traits that make up the wild genotype. This genotype, developed under natural conditions results in the expression of fully wild phenotype, i.e., a wild animal. If natural conditions are substituted for by those of captivity coupled with human contact early in life, which result in the animal becoming human attached or imprinted, the phenotype is altered. We no longer have a wild animal, but tamed animal.
Furthermore, when the "wild genotype is altered, as by the introduction of the genes of a domesticated animal through cross-breeding or genetic engineering, we have a unique creation that is neither fully wild nor fully domesticated. That is until it has been tamed. Then must be considered to be domesticated.
A old horse, once broken" or tamed, is considered to be domesticated because its genotype is virtually identical to other horse breeds. A wild wolf is genetically little more distant from the domesticated dog than wild mustang is to a quarter horse. (That wolf and dog can be hybridized, while a fox and a dog cannot, points to the genetic and ancestral affinities of wolf and dog.) The genetic and phenotype distance" between wolf and dog is closed by hybridization and by taming or human-imprinting early in life. In sum, a first generation wolf-dog hybrid raised with human contact, like the offspring of a tamed or broken mustang, cannot be considered to be a wild animal in any sense of the word.
There is an additional legal consideration in view of the recent ruling by the Board of Patent Appeals, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. This is that any animal that has been genetically engineered, such that it is unique and does not already exist in the wild, can be patented. The addition or deletion of no more than one gene satisfies the criteria for patentability. Legally, such animals are not considered to be wild because they do not exist naturally. The genetic changes in a wolf-dog hybrid are far more extensive. It is thus illogical to regard them as being wild or non-domesticated, while another species with a single gene change through genetic engineering is no longer considered to be wild and can be patented.
With reference to the safety and efficacy of using a rabies vaccine approved for use in domestic animals such as the dog, it is my professional opinion that it is no less safe and effective for use in wolf-dog hybrids. Zoos throughout the U.S. use rabies vaccines routinely to protect wolves and other captive canids against this disease. Since wolf-dog hybrids are not wild animals, there should be no legal reason why rabies vaccination should not be acceptable. Since it is a medically-acceptable fact that rabies vaccinations result in a protective antibody response in canids, and since laws are based upon fact and not fiction, it is fictitious to contend that a rabies vaccination for a wolf-dog hybrid is somehow different than it is for a purebred dog, such as a poodle that has no wolf genes. In actuality, a poodle, like any purebred dog, already has innumerable wolf genes since they share a close common ancestry.
I would like to stress that for ethical and other reasons; I am as opposed to the breeding of wolf-dog hybrids as I am to the patenting of animals. However, these personal views do not in any way conflict with or contradict the foregoing statement.