By Monique Lopez
FLORENCE, Wis. (WLUC) A dog found ripped to shreds in Florence had been confirmed as a wolf attack.
After a U.S. Department of Agriculture Division Wildlife Services investigator classified the mauling, his suspicions of there being a pack of wolves nearby sent the neighborhood into high alert last week.
The days of taking long walks and letting kids and animals run free are long gone for the Davis family.
Three generations of them all live on the same lot, so walking from house to house was a typical daily occurrence. But after seeing the carnage of their family pet dog Suzie just feet away from the home, they say they now live in constant fear.
“It was traumatic,” said Tom Tuchalski neighbor and son-in-law of Carmen Davis, the dog’s owner. “There’s no other way to explain it. I’ve never encountered anything like that in my entire life. I mean, I’ve seen a lot of stuff but that was by far the worst. It looked like a scene out of a horror movie.”
Although, according to a USDA wildlife biologist, relatively few wolf attacks are reported, Davis claims to have seen a few wolves in the area before this incident. The investigator, who confirmed the savage attack as being one caused by a wolf, was unable to say for sure whether more than one wolf was involved in the mutilation. But wolves run in packs and work as a team.
“We have a fairly good idea of the number of wolves in a pack in Wisconsin and, on average, without pups, usually our wolf packs range in the size of four to five animals,” said USDA wildlife biologist David Ruid.
The Davis family was told that all they can do is remain vigilant and report any other wolf sightings, but they want more to be done about this.
“The population needs to be controlled and they need to be taken out of residential areas,” Tuchalski said. “People shouldn’t have to worry about their pets and kids being in danger.”
Residents in the area are asked to report wolf sightings to the sheriff’s department or local DNR.