Wolves as pets and working animals
Some wildlife centers housing captive wolves prohibit handlers from entering wolf enclosures if they happen to have a cold or other vulnerability which the wolves can detect. Captive wolves are generally shy and avoid eye contact with humans other than their owner, as well as not listening to any commands made by any other humans. They usually vacate rooms or hide when a new person enters the establishment. Even seemingly friendly wolves need to be treated with caution, as captive wolves tend to view and treat people as other wolves, and will thus bite or dominate people in the same situation in which they would other wolves. Ordinary pet food is inadequate, as an adult wolf needs 1–2.5 kg (2–5 lbs) of meat daily along with bones, skin and fur to meet its nutritional requirements. Wolves may defend their food against people, and react violently to people trying to remove it. The exercise needs of a wolf exceed the average dog's demand. Because of this, captive wolves typically do not cope well in urban areas. Due to their talent at observational learning, adult captive wolves can quickly work out how to escape confinement, and require constant reinforcement by caretakers or owners, which makes raising wolves difficult for people who raise their pets in an even, rather than subordinate, environment.
Medieval hunting
Wolves were mainly hunted for their skins, to protect livestock, and in some rare cases to protect humans. Pelts were the only considered practical use for wolves, and were usually made into cloaks or mittens, though not without hesitation, due to the wolf's foul odour. There were generally no restrictions or penalties in the civilian hunting of wolves, except in royal game reserves, under the reasoning that the temptation for an intruding commoner to shoot a deer there was too great. In 9th-century France, Charlemagne founded an elite corps of crown-funded officials called "Luparii", whose purpose was to control wolf populations in France during the Middle Ages. In England of 950, King Athelstan imposed an annual tribute of 300 wolf skins on Welsh king Hywel Dda, an imposition which was maintained until the Norman conquest of England. The Norman kings (reigning from 1066 to 1152 AD) employed servants as wolf hunters and many held lands granted on condition they fulfilled this duty. King Edward I, who reigned from 1272 to 1307, ordered the total extermination of all wolves in the counties of Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Shropshire and Staffordshire, where wolves were more common than in the southern areas of England. James I of Scotland passed a law in 1427 requiring 3 wolf hunts a year between 25 April and 1 August, coinciding with the wolf's cubbing season. The wolf became extinct in England during the reign of Henry VII (1485–1509). Before its extinction in the British Isles, the wolf was considered by the English nobility as one of the five so called "Royal Beasts of the Chase".