[5][2] The specimens were originally kept in a 19th century villa in Cumiana[3] until Messi was ordered to relocate by the mayor of the comune after residents of Borgata Porta complained about the dogs' howls.

[6][7] The dogs were moved to a modern facility capable of housing 200 specimens, and included enclosures modeled after the wolf's natural habitat.

[5] In 1980, Messi founded the Original Association for the Selection of Lupo Italianos (Associazione Selezione Originale di Lupi Italiani; ASOLI), a nonprofit organisation dedicated to preserving the breed's purity.

[12] The next year, lack of funds made providing food and vaccines to the dogs difficult, resulting in the deaths of several pups from disease and malnutrition.

[20] In 1990, it was reported that the Lupo Italianos in the Cumiana facility were in poor health due to lack of food, medical treatment and flooding of their enclosures.

[31] In 2007, a group of ecologists from Piedmont, with backing from the Anti-Vivisection League (Lega Anti Vivisezione; LAV), commissioned the Turin chamber of commerce to start an investigation into the genetic profile of the Lupo Italiano.

The resulting analyses indicated that there was no wolf content in the breed, prompting the LAV to request the Prodi administration to suspend all funds to the ETLI.

Although the study confirmed that the Lupo Italiano is closely related to the German Shepherd, it could not find any significant haplotype sharing between it and the Italian wolf.