They live between worlds - half tame, half wild - dogs that aren't quite dogs, animals soon to be outlawed in Sandy.
The City Council tonight is set to pass an ordinance banning wolf hybrids inside the city limits, a move that would fill a void that animal-rights activists and the city's animal control department say has existed ever since state laws against the possession of the creatures lapsed last year."They may look like a dog, they may act like a dog, but you don't know what's going to set them off," said Terri Sorenson, director of animal services for the city. Sorenson and other animal experts say wolf hybrids have two flaws that make them incompatible with humans - their tempers are unpredictable and standard rabies vaccinations don't work on them.
Sorenson said several Sandy residents are in the business of raising and selling the half-breeds. She said this time of year is when the animals bear their young, so this is when pup sales begin.
"They just see this really nice-looking animal that looks like a wolf and they can say, `I own a wolf,' but they may not realize the potential problems they can have with that animal," said Gene Baierschmidt, executive director of the Humane Society of Utah, which supports the proposed ban.
"It's been shown that wolf hybrids have a tendency to revert back to their wildness," said Baierschmidt, who cites a Florida incident in which he said a local humane society was successfully sued for a half million dollars after it found a home for a wolf-dog "pet of the week."
"Two hours after it was adopted it killed a 2-year-old baby," said Baierschmidt.
"What's really terrible is these are neither domestic nor wild. They can't live in the wild because they're domesticated to some extent and they can't live in the city with people because they can go wild at any time. They should've never been created in the first place."
Baierschmidt said the only places fit for the animals are a handful of special refuges around the country, none of them in Utah. The society euthanizes wolf dogs when they are brought to its animal shelter, an occasional occurrence.
"They're unpredictable," said Sorenson. "Different things set them off, if a child falls or something, somehow it triggers them into thinking they're back in the wild."
Sorenson said the proposed ban was sparked in part by complaints by neighbors who live near residents who own the half-breeds.
"One woman wanted to know whether they might be a threat to her pets, and there have been some people calling to complain about the howling."
The state Division of Wildlife Resources last June changed it's classification of the animals, and now considers them dogs instead of wild creatures. The change leaves it up to local governments to regulate wolf hybrids.
Baerschmidt said the Humane Society is considering lobbying the Legislature to reinstitute the statewide ban. He said breeders have set up small operations in several communities along the Wasatch Front.