It was anything but a happy new year for Fred Desjarlais, an employee of
After a shift on Dec. 31, 2004, Desjarlais was jogging back to his temporary residence, about 3 km away from the main plant, when he was attacked by a timber wolf. Normally Desjarlais would have travelled by shuttle.
In the ensuing struggle, Desjarlais, 55, was wounded by several severe bites, including one to the back of his arm and two more in the pelvic area.
Fortunately he was wearing several layers of clothing, which prevented the wolf from inflicting more serious damage.
After rolling around on the ground and receiving numerous scratches and scrapes, Desjarlais, a man of considerable strength, managed to wrangle the beast into a headlock, rendering it temporarily immobile. The struggle remained at a stalemate for almost a minute until employees in a passing shuttle noticed the pair, and frightened off the animal.
Key Lake Safety Officer Kimm Barker told the Saskatoon StarPhoenix that the beast lacked intelligence because of all the people the wolf could have picked, “it chose one of the strongest.” Barker estimated the wolf weighed roughly 100 lbs.
Desjarlais received numerous stitches and is resting at his home in Saskatoon. He has been forced to take rabies shots and other medication and has admitted to having several sleepless nights since the incident.
The wolf was tracked and shot the following day.
Contact with animals at the Key Lake facility is rare. The only other incident occurred in 1984 when a wolf stole a sandwich from the hand of a worker during a lunch break.
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