{"id":511063,"date":"2026-04-03T16:46:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T16:46:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/511063\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T16:46:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T16:46:23","slug":"charity-defends-position-after-euthanising-family-of-five-wolves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/511063\/","title":{"rendered":"Charity defends position after euthanising family of five wolves"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trust said there has been a \u2018misunderstanding that we euthanised healthy wolves that we could have saved; that was not the case\u2019.<\/p>\n

\"author_img\"Share\"Charity<\/p>\n

A wildlife charity has defended its decision to euthanise its pack of wolves after the launch of a petition demanding an independent investigation.<\/p>\n

Wildwood Trust in Kent euthanised its European grey wolf pack \u2013 parents Odin and Nuna and full-grown cubs Tiberius, Minimus and Maximus \u2013 on 25 March after a breakdown in their social structure led to infighting resulting in life-threatening injuries.<\/p>\n

A petition<\/a> launched by Davie Murray, a member of the charity\u2019s adoption scheme, has already racked up more than 18,000 signatures.<\/p>\n

The petition makes a range of demands, including a review of the pack\u2019s management logs going back six months, an account of any rehoming options explored and for a \u201cnever again\u201d commitment that the charity will consult \u201cwith specialist sanctuaries before any healthy animal is euthanised for behavioural reasons\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u2018Difficult decision\u2019<\/p>\n

In a statement to Vet Times, a Wildwood Trust spokesperson said: \u201cThis was an incredibly difficult decision, made with great care after consultation with several external wolf specialists, experienced veterinary professionals, and an ethical review.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll possible alternatives were given careful and exhaustive consideration. The clear advice we received was that any delay or alternative course of action would have led to prolonged and avoidable pain and suffering for all five wolves.\u201d<\/p>\n

The spokesperson said an International Zoo Veterinary Group post-mortem \u201cconfirmed the correct decision was taken\u201d, adding: \u201cThere seems to be a misunderstanding that we euthanised healthy wolves that we could have saved.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was not the case, none of the wolves were healthy and the post-mortem findings show that it would not have been ethical to have taken any other action.\u201d<\/p>\n

The statement concluded: \u201cWe do not take decisions like this lightly. We recognise that, from the outside, it may be difficult to fully understand the clinical evidence behind what happened, but based on everything we know, and the expert advice we received, we remain confident that this was the correct and most humane decision for the animals in our care.\u201d<\/p>\n

Internal review<\/p>\n

Wildwood Trust said it is conducting an internal review to ensure it is \u201ccontinuing to meet the highest standards of care\u201d, and trust director Paul Whitfield told the BBC it is \u201cabsolutely questioning\u201d whether to keep wolves again.<\/p>\n

Richard Morley, director of the Wolves and Humans Foundation, said: \u201cI have confidence that Paul Whitfield and the team at Wildwood made the best decision they could in the circumstances, and have offered them any support I can give at this difficult time.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cCaptive wolves contribute significantly to education and support for conservation of the species in the wild.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we hope to have wolves back in the UK one day, it is important that people can see them in the flesh and learn more about them, particularly at places like Wildwood, which has an excellent record in supporting conservation and reintroduction of native species.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trust said there has been a \u2018misunderstanding that we euthanised healthy wolves that we could have saved; that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":{"0":"post-511063","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom","11":"tag-unitedkingdom","12":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}