By Emilia Randall

Copyright dailyrecord

A mum from Pennsylvania in the US endured a horrific death when she was savagely attacked by eight of the peculiar hybrid creatures she kept as pets. Sandra L Piovesan’s body was found by her own daughter at her home in Salem Township, having been brutally mauled to death by her hybrid wolves. The 50-year-old was killed by her own pet wolfdogs, an extremely unpredictable breed which is produced when a domestic dog is crossed with a grey wolf, eastern wolf, red wolf, or Ethiopian wolf to create a hybrid. Heartbreakingly, her body was discovered on Monday, 30 April 2012, by her daughter within the dogs’ electrified enclosure, which Sandra had constructed herself to keep the hybrid animals contained, according to Tribe Live. An autopsy revealed Sandra bled to death after raising the dogs as pets before they turned on her, as per the Westmoreland County Coroner’s Office. However, the coroner noted that oddly, the dogs seemed to have halted their attack, reports the Mirror US . Dr Cyril H. Wecht added the most severe injuries were to her scalp and legs. “It appears they (the wolves) stopped their attack,” he said. “It’s curious.” Wecht added Piovesan likely died within minutes of the initial onslaught. Westmoreland County Humane Agent Elaine Gower reiterated her concerns about the risks of keeping hybrid wolves as pets, with the expert stating she had warned Sandra it was only a matter of time before the highly unpredictable animals turned against her. The post-mortem examination put to rest speculation that Sandra might have collapsed whilst in the enclosure with her animals, meaning they only turned on her after she had already passed away, or had been motionless for some time. “There is no evidence, in my opinion, of a heart attack, stroke, or any other condition involving a natural death that would have rendered her unconscious or cause her to become incapacitated,” Wecht said. Other wildlife specialists support Gower’s view that crossbred wolves present a heightened threat to people compared to wild wolves, as hybrids are more prone to launching attacks. Gower revealed a friend of Sandra’s was set upon by one of the animals roughly two years earlier, but the victim didn’t file an official report. “We were all scared that someday, somehow, those wolves would escape that pen and hurt some child or someone,” Gower said. Sandra had successfully registered the creatures at the county treasurer’s office as mixed-breed dogs, according to county records. “With Sandra, the problem we had was when we were looking into something, she identified them as dogs. But when she sold the pups, they were identified as wolves,” Gower said. Gower said she doesn’t know how many puppies Sandra sold nor does she know the identities of the buyers. Sandra’s eight dogs were euthanised so authorities could retrieve her body from inside the pen. “They had to be killed. There was no way of knowing which one killed her,” Gower said. He added two adult Rottweilers, owned by Piovesan and kept inside the house, were confiscated and will be placed in an animal sanctuary. Officials clarified that these Rottweilers were not the dogs that had been bred with the wolves to produce the hybrids.