SASKATOON -- A man's evening jog became a struggle for his life in
northern Saskatchewan when a timber wolf lunged at his head and sank
its teeth into his leg. But Fred Desjarlais, 55, was able to fight off
several attacks by the large predator and then wrestled it into
submission long enough for a busload of co-workers to arrive and scare
the beast away.
"I don't know what came over me or how I did it," Desjarlais said from
his Saskatoon home where he was recuperating. "All I know is I had his
head and I wasn't letting go until someone came to help me."
Desjarlais works for Cameco Corp.'s uranium milling facility in Key
Lake, about 640 kilometres north of Saskatoon. He had just finished his
shift at 7 p.m. New Year's Eve, and decided to jog the three kilometres
back to camp instead of catching the shuttle bus, when he was attacked.
At one point, he and the wolf were face to face as the beast reared on
its hind legs and looked down at him, he said.
"He had a big mouth and a big head," Desjarlais recalled.
"It was a bad attack -- it bit him twice really badly -- but Fred's a
remarkable man," said Kimm Barker, Cameco's Key Lake safety officer.
"It wasn't a very smart wolf because of all the people it could have
picked, it chose one of the strongest."
Desjarlais was already into his run when he heard something and glanced
back to see the animal creep out of the ditch and walk toward him.
"He was taunting me, (walking) in a circle around me. I looked around
real quick and thought, 'I hope he's alone.' "
Desjarlais hollered and tried to scare the animal off, but it lunged at
his head. He jumped to the side and dodged, but the wolf came back.
"That's when I knew he meant business," said Desjarlais, who eluded a
second lunge. But the wolf quickly spun around and bit into his
shoulder.
Desjarlais was wearing several layers of clothing which prevented the
bite from breaking the skin, but it did leave significant bruising. The
wolf then turned its attention to his lower body and bit him twice in
the pelvis.
Both man and beast fell over and got back up. When his chance came
again, Desjarlais locked onto the wolf's back, threw his arms around
the animal's head and put it in a headlock.
"I pulled him down the way you would take down cattle (for roping) and
I dropped onto his head, pinning him there," said Desjarlais, who held
on for about 30 to 40 seconds before co-workers returning to camp on
the bus spotted the pair.
"He was pretty much at the end of his string. His strength was
draining," said Barker.