Jasmine

sex: female
born: 21 April 1988
birth place: Colorado

deceased: 28 December 2006

given sanctuary: 01 March 1998

 

Jasmine's Memorial
see Newsletter - Winter 06-07 (click)

Jasmine's Story

Jasmine's story is similar to that of many of the wolf-dogs that come into this world. A breeder in the Black Hawk area of Colorado was fascinated with these animals, and tried to make a living working with them. Circumstances eventually caused the individual to sell his property, making arrangements with the new owner to allow him to keep his wolf enclosure and his last three animals in that enclosure. Jasmine, her sister Ashley, and another sister, whose name we never determined, were doing all right with this arrangement. As fate would have it, their owner slowly began to neglect the animals. Concerned neighbors became involved when the unnamed sister was found dead, purportedly of starvation. They began trekking food and water, in the winter, over a mile from the closest access road they could reach. As they kept up their arduous endeavor, they attempted to alert authorities to the plight of the remaining two animals.

Fate again entered the picture. The current owner of the property defaulted on the mortgage, and the mortgage company foreclosed and had a survey performed that determined that the enclosure was on U.S. Forest Service property. The mortgage company immediately petitioned the Forest Service to remove the animals and the enclosure.

Wolf was contacted by the Forest Service, in an effort to find a home for them if it became necessary to confiscate them from the current owner. Attempts were made to allow the owner to voluntarily place the animals at Wolf. As the time frame dragged on and the owner could not or would not accomplish the task, the Forest Service moved in and seized the animals. They were turned over to Wolf and began their new life.

Ashley and Jasmine share an enclosure, and have adapted very well to their home. Wolf has discovered over time that, when grouping animals together, it is very important to take all aspects of their physical and psychological make-ups into account. When two females are in the same enclosure, there can not be another animal in with them. For some reason, females can not or will not share a male. Either the dominant female feels a constant threat from another female, or, indeed, there truly is a threat. Males, on the other hand, seem to be comfortable with another male, and there are seldom any dominance skirmishes. Captive animals cannot respond the way they would in the wild. When there is a dominance "standoff", in the wild (perceived or real), one of the individuals will leave the pack and attempt to start a new pack in a different territory. This approach works perfectly for the health of the species, maintaining an excellent mix of genes. Obviously, this approach is next to impossible in captivity. The normal make-ups of the groups at Wolf consist of two males and one female.

Unfortunately, both Ashley and Jasmine were still intact sexually when received at Wolf. Although Wolf has a standard operating procedure to spay and neuter all animals received, due to the ages of Ashley and Jasmine (11 years old), the decision was made not to have them spayed. Their personalities would not have been affected because their behavior patterns were already established. Also, they would not be placed in enclosures with males, so there was no reason for the procedure. It eventually did become necessary to spay Ashley, as she developed a uterine infection and cysts on her ovaries. The operation was performed without negative implications, and she shows no signs of slowing down.

Ashley is the dominant animal, and volunteers joke that Ashley's job is to pin Jasmine, showing her dominance. Jasmine’s job is to scream as if she is being dismembered, which demonstrates her submissiveness. In actuality, both animals are flourishing and no injury has ever been inflicted. Although very shy, both animals have bonded with several of the Wolf volunteers and enjoy being given attention.

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