Wolf on the loose in Benoni ‘in sight and sedated’

A Canadian Timber Wolf dog on the loose in Benoni since New Year’s Eve has been found and sedated, with a trained veterinary team on their way to dart and capture it.

The Benoni City Times reported on Tuesday that the wolf escaped the Absolute Exotics SA’s facility after being spooked by fireworks.

Speaking to The Citizen, Absolute Exotics’ Christo Myburgh said the wolf was in sight and was not a danger to the community.

“We have identified where the wolf is and he is being monitored. We tried to sedate him last night, so he is in a sedated state while we work to recapture him.”

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Myburg said the wolf was “very clever” and had escaped previous attempts, but would be recaptured “within the next two hours”.

He said the wolf was a pet wolf dog hybrid, and was simply “more destructive” than a Husky.

“It is very unlikely that we will find a pure wolf in South Africa. The wolves we do have are raised with dogs and essentially see themselves as such”.

Absolute Exotics got the one-year-old male wolf on New Year’s Eve, just hours before his escape, after a call from its previous owner offering it up.

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“We do animal rehabilitation and someone called us on New Year’s Eve and said they had a wolf that they were willing to give to us to rehabilitate.

“We have another wolf in our facility so we accepted it. The wolf was in our facility for less than six hours when it escaped”.

The Benoni SPCA was alerted and asked to redirect all reported sightings of the wolf to Myburg. It told The Citizen, that no residents had called them to say they had seen a wolf.