Already Went Swimming with Dolphins? Now You Should Go Dancing with Wolves Kristina Bravo - TakePart
go to original August 8, 2014

Visitors Feel Part of the Pack at Wolf Preserve (Associated Press)

Little Red Riding Hood was wrong - at least according to the owner of the Seacrest Wolf Preserve in Florida, where for a $25 fee, humans get to hang out with a pack of wild dogs.

“The wolf is not the bad guy but indeed a very important keystone species,” Cynthia Watkins told the Associated Press. She and her husband, Wayne Watkins, have raised 30 gray, arctic, and British Columbian wolves to learn to behave around humans. The goal is to turn people into champions for the animals, which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service removed from the endangered species list in 2009, over the objections of wolf advocates.

Is the preserve safe? According to the owners, kids under the age of six aren’t allowed, guests watch a video before getting close to the animals, and trained wolf handlers preside over the tours.

“We are not some little roadside zoo,” Watkins told the AP. She estimates that 10,000 people visit the 430-acre preserve every year; none has been reported to be harmed since Seacrest started out as a small conservation effort in 1999.

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Photo: Danita Delimont/Getty Images

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