MADISON, Wis. -- Despite a massive e-mail campaign to save a wolf or wolf dog near Wisconsin Dells, the Department of Natural Resources said a national policy dictates that the animal must be euthanized.

Supporters of a wolf preserve in Colorado have been sending e-mail to the DNR, media and others, pleading for the wolf to be spared and sent to the wolf sanctuary.

But the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is already in the process of trying to trap the wolf, which has been living near a Wisconsin Dells area farm.

The USDA confirmed the wolf or wolf-dog hybrid has attacked at least two animals, including a dog that needed 30 stitches and a Holstein calf that required $150 of veterinary work.

Based on those attacks, a national policy that includes Wisconsin said the animal must be euthanized.

"Last year, 35 wolves were euthanized, 29 the year before and 27 the year before that, all for livestock depredation, so this is not uncommon in Wisconsin," said Greg Matthews, regional public affairs manager for the DNR.

Most of those animals were in the northern regions of the state, WISC-TV reported.

Matthews said that despite the many requests to move the wolf to the Colorado sanctuary, there are multiple reasons why it can't be done.

One reason is that if it is a full-blooded wolf, by law it can't leave the state. Another is that the DNR has liability concerns about the wolf attacking another animal or a person at the preserve.

But overruling those reasons is the policy of USDA-APHIS that requires the wolf to be euthanized because of the attacks.