MetroABQ Blog

Every year I sponsor abandoned animals at the Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary in Candy Kitchen, NM. Usually it's an older wolf who someone tried to keep as a pet & it didn't work out so well...This year I am helping support two different types of dogs: a New Guinea Singing Dog & an Australian Dingo. 

New Guinea Singing Dogs are very small & currently among the rarest wild canines. Tia, pictured, is one of them, living happily near the continental divide in NM.

Images & text below are from the WSWS site:

HISTORY ~ Some consider the rare and wild New Guinea singing dogs to be most like dingoes, but others report that they have completely unique DNA. They get their name from their equally unique howl which is nearly impossible to describe. Some say it sounds like a barbershop quartet, and others describe it as an ethereal trill. When we rescued our first group of singing dogs, Bono, Bowie, Foxy, Princess, and Reba, we heard there were less than 200 New Guinea singing dogs in captivity, and that they may already be extinct on their native island of Papua New Guinea. We read that on the island, Singers were seen more in pairs than in packs. Just recently, New Guinea singing dogs have been spotted in the wild again. For 30 years or so, no one in their native country had seen them at all, although they reported hearing them sing.

These dogs are rare in the wild. There are reputable conservation organizations, like The New Guinea Singing Dog Conservation Society, but breeders have begun selling the small dogs for pets. Despite their size and how cute they are, these animals are not domesticated and cannot enjoy life as a pet. Unfortunately, Tia and her mate, Juan, were held for over 6 years by a breeder in Tijuana, Mexico. Those who saw where they lived said there was nothing natural for them to enjoy, not even a tree. The sweet couple was getting older and no longer able to breed, so they were going to be destroyed. A rescue team quickly came together to save their lives.