By Fiona Frawley
The owner insists the animal is shy and not a threat to humans.
A hybrid wolf or "wolfdog" named Axel is at large in the Cork countryside after escaping from an open farm last week.
Axel is a cross between a German Shepherd and a Carpathian Grey Wolf, and went missing from Rumley's Open Farm on Liberty Hill in Waterfall, Cork last Friday. He is thought to have dug under the fence in his enclosure where he has been for 12 years, farm owner Ivan Rumley has told the
Farmer's Journal. Carpathian Grey Wolves were originally bred in Czechoslovakia in the 1950s to act as border patrol and search and rescue dogs.
A photo of the canine has been circulating on Twitter after local woman Pauline Murphy saw him in a field in the Ballinhassig/Ballygarvan area of Cork, but Ivan of Rumley's Farm has insisted he's not a threat to people or livestock and is actually very shy.
Axel the 'wolfdog' has been on the run in Cork since last Friday.
Speaking to the Farmer's Journal, Ivan said Axel is "as much a dog as a wolf" and added that the farm has set up a number of traps in the hopes of capturing him safely.
The farm has been criticised in the past by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) due to “repeated” animal escapes and “very lackadaisical” efforts to recapture them,
the Examiner has reported.
An inspection report by NPWS from 2019 revealed a history of animal escapes from Rumley’s, many of which involved invasive alien species that posed a threat to biodiversity in the area. In 2020,
inspectors expressed 'major' concerns about the welfare of animals on the farm, and all of its exotic animals were re-homed with the help of the NPWS as part of a “managed closure” of this part of the zoo.
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