Sarah Varley credits a pack of wovles with saving her life (Picture: Mercury)

A rape survivor who suffered from anorexia after her attack says a wolf pack helped save her life.

Sarah Varley was just 19 when she was attacked and she suffered PTSD. She became so terrified of vomiting that she would only eat three raisins and three walnuts each morning.

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She lost 2st 5lbs in five months, sparking fears that she would die without help.

Now 28, Sarah, from southern California, credits spending eight hours a day with a pack of wolves and mixed-species wolf dogs with saving her life.


She said: ‘I do not know if I would be here today without the wolves.

She was raped when she was 19, but the dogs have helped her overcome PTSD (Picture: Mercury)

‘The way things were going, I was trying anything I could to numb the pain and you can only do that for so long before something happens.



‘I was scared of everything, but one day I went into the enclosure with a wolf and it was the first time my brain shut up. When you’re with a predator that can hurt you, your brain automatically focuses on that.

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‘Instead of the million imaginary threats I had been on guard against, I was focused on this one threat and I was present in the moment.

‘When I first began spending a lot of time with them I definitely felt hyperaware and there were moments when it was scary.

She spent eight hours a day with the wolves (Picture: Mercury)

‘Wolves are really powerful animals and if something pisses them off or you are doing something they do not like they are going to make it known.

‘But having that level of fear was what allowed me to start feeling. Before I was scared of everything around me, but when I was with a wolf I had a legitimate reason to be scared and respectful which gave me something to be focused on.

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‘I think that respect and that need to be present is what helped me so much.. It allowed me to take back power over a traumatic event in my life and it has helped me heal.

‘I am so grateful to these animals – I feel very lucky.’

Sarah works with both pure breed wolves and wolf dogs, which are the result of breeding between wolves and dogs within the animals’ last five generations.

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Most of the domestically-bred wolf dogs Sarah works with have been rescued from owners who can’t look after them, roadside zoos and farms and the animals are banned in many US states.

Wolf and wolf dog sanctuaries also look after rescued wild and captive pure-breed wolves and are dedicated to rehabilitating these animals back into the wild wherever possible.

After Sarah was raped as a 19-year-old in January 2009 she suffered PTSD and two years later, as a 21-year-old, developed a severe germ and vomit phobia which saw her stop eating and put in place strict rules such as only having three raisins and three walnuts for breakfast.

Sarah – who would also feel unable to swallow food after a few bites and would not eat if she was not home for dinner by 8pm – lost 2st 5lbs in five months and at her lowest weighed just 6st 7lbs.

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The 28-year-old had first come into contact with wolves and wolf dogs eight years ago at a sanctuary run by her cousins but in 2013 began visiting the animals more regularly and developed a strong bond with them.



She then moved to New Hampshire with fiance Matthew Withem, 29, to run and manage a wolf and wolf dog sanctuary – with the couple of four and a half years together responsible for about 50 wolves and wolf dogs.

Sarah has now recently moved back to California and is in the process of founding her own wolf and wolf dog sanctuary which will combine helping animals with providing mental health therapy for people in need.

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She said: ‘I had always been fearful of vomiting, but the PTSD kicked my anxiety up a notch to the point where I just could not control it.

‘In the morning I would only eat three raisins and three walnuts. It became this very obsessive thing. I would have a few bites of food and feel like I had already eaten too much and could not swallow it.

‘It was a day to day thing, it was exhausting. Everything in my life focussed on food. I wouldn’t eat after 8pm so if I didn’t get home in time to make food I wouldn’t eat anything that evening.

‘I had visited the wolves head and there over the past eight years but I started really going up to see them at my cousin’s sanctuary in 2013 before running the sanctuary in New Hampshire.

‘I had always loved wolves and as soon as I met a wolf dog I just fell madly in love with them.

‘They are a core part of my life now and I would feel empty without them.


‘A lot of the animals I work with were traumatised as well, they had been abused and they had been abandoned and they were hurting.

‘I think it’s empowering for women to know they can heal in other ways. It’s also kind of badass, no one is going to attack me again – I live with wolves. It’s a huge sense of relief.’