An animal shelter worker from Croatia was shocked when the ‘puppies’ she was looking after turned out to be babies of a different kind.

The woman, identified only as Marina, only realised the four-month old animals were in fact jackals after being alerted by her followers when she posted videos of them online.

Four months ago the shelter, Faun Kutina, rescued a box of five ‘puppies’ which had been dumped in a field.

An animal shelter worker was shocked when a dumped box of ‘puppies’ she had been raising turned out to be baby jackals (Picture: CEN/Alfa team Canis Aureus)

They started to raise the ‘puppies’, which they believed were Belgian shepherds.


The shelter shared pictures of the ‘puppies’ online, updating followers about their progress. But they became suspicious when people kept pointing out that they weren’t really acting like dogs, and seemed more like wild animals.

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By this point, two of the ‘puppies’ had died, but Marina took the remaining three to a local organisation involved in the protection of wild animals, who confirmed that they were, actually, jackal pups.



By the time the true status of the animals was confirmed, they had already spent too much time in human company to ever be released back into the wild.

After much debate over whether they should remain with Marina or be handed over to a zoo, Marina has now become the first person in Croatia to secure permission to keep jackals as pets.

The shelter’s social media followers pointed out that the ‘puppies’ weren’t really acting like dogs (Picture: CEN/Alfa team Canis Aureus)

Marina says the three pups – who are all female – have their own personalities.

Alfa is the leader of the pack, and the others stay out of her way when she eats.

Rea, meanwhile, loves to explore and steal things, and can often be found in the kitchen cabinets or stealing mobile phones, slippers and toilet paper.

Marina has now become the first person in Croatia to secure official permission to keep jackals as pets (Picture: CEN/Alfa team Canis Aureus)

The last pup, Kia, likes to climb and can squeeze herself through any hole.

Marina said that the cubs still like to be petted and love to play, and have shown no opposition to domestic lives.

She claims they even answer to their own names.

She said she wanted to share their story to show people that jackals are not dangerous or vermin.

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