The Stolen Wolves of Kazakhstan

As I noted in an earlier post,

Wild wolves are still being domesticated every day.

Why?

Simple enough: for pets.

The same trend is true for every other animal under the sun: coyotes, red fox, monkeys, apes, hyenas, tigers, lions, tapirs, sloths, crows, hawks, parrots, badgers, fenecs, servals, raccoons, cheetahs, bears, bobcats, rats, agoutis, possum, groundhogs... the list is endless. We routinely make pets of them all, in modern culture as well as primitive.

In the picture, at top, we see modern Kazak hunters who have raided a wolf den to steal away the cubs. These wolf cubs are then raised and later sold to dog fighters. No, not all pets are kept on the couch!

How close can a Kazak dog be to a wolf? That obviously depends a lot on the particular dog, but take a look at the Kazak dog below (source) and compare and contrast with the images, above.

Kazakhstan has the largest wolf population in the world, with about 90,000 animals spread over about a million square miles. For comparison purposes, Canada has a about 60,000 wolves spread over a land mass that is over three times larger.
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