Basically even UC DAVIS Dna test has already been Proven Inconclusive!! RELEASE LEELOO! You have stressed this poor animal and her Family enough as it is, and should be held Liable when UC Davis can not even confirm a Hybrids ancestry!! Having only 3 Markers of 21 according to UC Davis’s own website, not to mention the fact that they were non committed on what leeloo actually is proves additionally they dont want to commit based on lack of evidence it would seem. Population analyses are done with 21 markers and over 90 SNPs (Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms) Genotype data is compared to a database for Alaskan Husky, Inuit dogs, German Shepherds and North American Wolves. The dog breeds were chosen because they are commonly used to produce hybrids in North America. Population assignment and admixture analyses determine the likelihood that the subject animal is a dog, wolf or hybrid.
OCAC sounds pretty fishy! Especially with their failure to provide any Reason, or further concrete documentation.
No state permit is required to possess the progeny of F1 generation wolf hybrids, but cities and counties may prohibit possession or require a permit. Huntington Beach rules can not be found, which tells us they do not have a rule pertaining to Progenys.
Perhaps they should send a DNA test out to a neutral party ! Wolf-Fox-Coyote Hybrid Test and Domestic Breed Determination Test- $89.99 http://www.shop.dnamydog.org/
To find out, I emailed Becky Ewalt-Evans at the UC Davis Veterinary Genetics Laboratory. They’re the lab running the test for DEEP. She said proving an exact percentage of a hybrid’s wolf ancestry is basically impossible. “Wolves and dogs are fairly closely related,” Ewalt-Evans wrote. “Fixed genetic differences (that allow determination of origin) between wolves and dogs are relatively few.” Source: http://wnpr.org/post/so-you-think-its-wolfdog-what-can-dna-tests-tell-us#stream/0
ORANGE – Test results from the Forensics Lab at UC Davis reveal that Leeloo, impounded at OC Animal Care after biting a young girl in June, has a high level of wolf DNA in her genetic makeup.
“It is my opinion that Leeloo … is a pure wolf or a high-content wolf-dog hybrid,” Christina Linguist, director of the lab, wrote in a report submitted this week to OC Animal Care.
Researchers at the lab tested the animal’s DNA against certain markers only seen in wild species, said Linguist, who heads up the university’s forensic lab.
“Leeloo has three genetic markers that have only been observed in wild canids and an additional marker that has only been observed in wolves,” she wrote.
The test result has left Leeloo’s owners, Kara Brundage, 39, and Jeremy Clover, 42, of Huntington Beach, scrambling to save their family pet.
“We were floored,” Brundage said Wednesday about Leeloo’s test results. “This has been our pet for three years, she’s been raised with my son and slept in our bed. This is our dog. We’re proud of how amazing, caring and sweet she is despite what the results are telling us. She can’t get close enough to you and crawls on you like a pancake.”
Brundage said she was told by an OC Animal Care investigator that there was no negligence found in how the dog was cared for and handled in the neighborhood where she lived.
Leeloo was never off leash and was enclosed in a dog run when the couple wasn’t home, she said.
Jennifer Hawkins, director of OC Animal Care, said her agency will not review the case but has submitted it to County Counsel. It will be up to that office to determine the next steps and to make a declaration on Leeloo, Hawkins said. As of Wednesday, Brundage said she had yet to receive paperwork from OC Animal Care giving official notification on why Leeloo has not been released from the shelter.
“They are not telling us what she is being charged for,” Brundage said. “Is she being charged as a potentially dangerous animal or as a wolf?”
Meanwhile, she said, efforts are underway to get Leeloo transferred to a wolf sanctuary.
The couple has contacted Lockwood Animal Center, which is on 20 acres in the Los Padres National Forest. The nonprofit center has wolf dogs, some rescued from county animal care centers and some surrendered by their owners.
Brundage said the sanctuary has federal and state permits and a $10 million insurance policy and is a facility allowed to quarantine wolves that come from outside California.
“All these permits were hand-delivered to officials at OC Animal Care on Saturday,” Brundage said.
Matthew Simmons, a decorated Navy veteran, is director of the Lockwood Animal Center. He said, Wednesday, it was clear to him what Leeloo is without seeing the DNA results.
“If I don’t get involved, Leeloo will be euthanized,” he said. “I want to offer them an option. I want to remove the animal from the county and keep her safe and secure in the sanctuary. I can get this problem out of the county’s hands.”
Simmons said he has nearly 150 wolf dogs in his care in the sanctuary here and in one on the East Coast.
“Wolves and wolf dogs don’t make good pets,” he said. “The reason I have so many is that they grow up to be wolves. They’re independent beings, they’re not domestic animals. They don’t care about your house, the couch or your TV. Even with the best intentions, they may decide you’re not part of their pack.”
By invoking the Hayden Act, which expands an animal’s impound timebefore it is euthanized and requires it to be released to a nonprofit animal rescue or adoption organization in certain circumstances, Brundage and Clover are hoping Leeloo can be saved and transferred.
Hawkins confirmed Tuesday that she has been contacted by a sanctuary.
“The area of the Hayden Act referenced applies only to stray animals,” Hawkins said. “As Leeloo has an owner, there are no grounds for transfer at this time.”
Like Karma, a husky-mix that last year was also found to have wolf DNA and ordered euthanized, efforts to save Leeloo have gone viral.
Karma’s story drew widespread attention when she was slated to be euthanized by OC Animal Care. The agency declared Karma, a wolf dog/husky mix who belonged to an Anaheim family, vicious because, they said, she had killed at least one cat and charged, though didn’t bite, a woman in Anaheim.
Karma was ordered euthanized because the effectiveness of rabies vaccines on wolf hybrids is unknown, so the dog could not be legally licensed.
However, after public outrage and intervention by the Orange County Board of Supervisors, Karma was released, and Supervisor Todd Spitzer helped get Karma relocated to a wolf dog sanctuary in North Carolina.
“We hope and pray that this ends on a good note for our dog,” said Brundage.
Contact the writer: 714-796-2254 or eritchie@ocregister.com or on Twitter:@lagunaini