| Six injured in rare
wolf attack
(Note: Every rural dweller, recreationist, vacationer, farmer, miner, logger, rancher or rural homeowner, should read this through from start to finish. It is that important. This occurred over the Labor Day holiday. "Wolves work in packs and not individually, and it was probably ostracized." What about the "lone wolf" pabulum parroted by those using the expired-but-annually-resuscitated "Endangered" Species Act to loose a slew of large predators upon rural areas? If for some reason you cannot view the two photos below, simply click on the website address for each jpg to view. Fred Desjarlais would disagree about wolves' supposed 'shyness,' and so would Kenton Joel Carnegie -- if wolves had not killed and partially eaten him. Before the reader shrugs these things off as being 'not in my back yard' -- NIMBY -- please consider that this could have happened to your friends, your family, or you, while on vacation or living in some rural clime. Please recall the California and Colorado cougar attacks that resulted in human fatalities. No one thought Texas cougars would magically be transformed into "endangered Florida panthers," merely by crossing a couple of state lines while being shipped by government or private "re"introducers. The red highlighting signifies use of Language Deception. The very fact that United States media is concertedly pretending this attack didn't happen, rather than splashing it all over the print and television media, appears to indicate an unwillingness to admit that such attacks are, indeed, becoming anything but 'rare' and are soon to come 'south of the [Canadian] border.' How much media coverage will there be when -- not if -- there is a human victim in America? How long will it be before a Canadian gray wolf pack 'naturally disperses' to 'The Wayne,' also known as the Wayne National Forest of southern Ohio -- or to the Great Smoky Mountains of Kentucky, North Carolina and Tennessee, or the Appalachians, Ozarks, Adirondacks, or the Wasatch and Green River country, and beyond? How far do you live from a national park or forest?)
September 7, 2006
No author provided at originating website address/URL. The Canadian Press The Hamilton Spectator http://www.hamiltonspectator.com To submit a Letter to the Editor:
Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada - A lone wolf that attacked six people, including several young children, in a provincial park over the long weekend has tested negative for rabies, the Algoma Health Unit said yesterday. The wolf, which has been blamed for several separate attacks Monday at the popular Katherine's Cove beach on Lake Superior was shot by park staff. The wolf had a broken clavicle and tooth when it was shot following the attacks, which may explain its abnormal behaviour, said health unit inspector Bob Frattini. "Wolves work in packs and not individually, and it was probably ostracized," Frattini said. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency plans to conduct further testing on the wolf's body to try and find other possible causes for the attacks, which left several families injured and badly shaken. The attack on the Wright family occurred on Bathtub Island, a large rocky area within wading distance of the mainland and about 100 metres south of Katherine's Cove. Brenda Wright, on a day trip with her sister-in-law, two children and their cousins, aged 10 and 13, said her family was probably attacked first. Park officials say they aren't sure about the order of the attacks. Her son, Casey, 12, noticed a black, doglike animal running across the beach. She said the animal nipped the ankle of her 13-year-old nephew, Jake, then clamped down on her son's buttock, carrying him about half a metre before dropping him and lunging at her. The wolf's teeth tore into her hands and her leg as she fought back and the group raced into the shallow swimming area. Wright said the wolf followed them, this time going after Emily Travaglini-Wright, 14. "(Emily) was a real fighter. . . She got mostly claws in her head and her arm," her mother said.
Emily Travaglini-Wright, 14, of Sault Ste. Marie, displays wounds she suffered while fighting off a wolf that attacked her and four other family members at Katherine's Cove beach in Lake Superior Provincial Park. Photo credit: Margaret Cameron-Mcqueen, the Canadian Press. http://www.hamiltonspectator.com/images/hs/hs1469793_1.jpg
Leah Morgan from Marathon, Ontario, was attacked by a wolf at Katherine's Cove, Lake Superior Provincial Park. She was with her grandparents who rescued her from the wolf as it tried to drag her away. Photo credit: Brenda Grundt, Wawa-News.Com. http://www.hamiltonspectator.com/images/hs/hs1469793_2.jpg Alerted by the screams, two strangers raced over and managed to scare off the wolf. As families hid in the trees, the wolf returned minutes later and rifled through their picnic stashes. For Jerry and Rachel Talbot, it started at around 4 p.m. The Wawa, Ontario, couple, on their way to a wedding in Sudbury, with granddaughters Leah, 3, and Madison, 5, pulled off Highway 17 for a quick swim at a popular picnic area in Lake Superior Provincial Park. According to park staff, more than a dozen others were enjoying the end of the Labour Day weekend at Katherine's Cove when the Talbot family wandered onto the beach and began to remove their shoes. Jerry Talbot noticed a black animal chasing a girl across the sand. Too slow for the girl, the animal veered off and grabbed a slower, smaller target: Leah. It clamped its jaws around the blond toddler's left upper arm and began dragging her away from her grandmother and sister. The girl was dragged about six metres before the wolf dropped her on her back, startled by the shrieks of her grandparents and those who had jumped in to help. Leah started to run, but she was in sand and she was in shock. The wolf grabbed the hood of the little girl's black jacket. This time, Rachel Talbot's advances and screams caused the wolf to drop the girl momentarily and she lunged forward, scooped up the child and raced to her vehicle. Jerry Talbot and Madison were close behind. The International Wolf Center is one of the premier sources of information on wolves. What follows are excerpts from wolf [FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions] found at: http://www.wolf.org/wolves/index.asp * There are three species of wolves in the world: the gray wolf (Canis lupus), the red wolf (Canis rufus) and the Ethiopian (or Abyssinian) wolf, (Canis simensis). Some researchers believe the Ethiopian wolf is not a wolf, but actually a jackal. * The gray wolf, Canis lupus, lives in the northern latitudes around the world. * There are five subspecies of the gray wolf in North America and seven to 12 in Eurasia. * Wolves usually live in packs which consist of the adult parents, referred to as the alpha pair, and their offspring of perhaps the last 2 or 3 years. * Pack size is highly variable because of birth of pups, dispersal, and mortality. Generally, a gray wolf pack has from six to eight wolves, but in Alaska and northwestern Canada some packs have over 30 members. * Territory size is highly variable. Gray wolf territories in Minnesota range from about 25 to 150 square miles, while territories in Alaska and Canada can range from about 300 to 1,000 square miles. * Wolves breed at slightly different times, depending on where they live. For example, gray wolves in the Great Lakes Region breed in February to March, while gray wolves in the Arctic may breed slightly later in March to April. * The gestation period of gray and red wolves is usually around 63 days. * Adult female gray wolves in northern Minnesota weigh between 50 and 85 pounds, and adult males between 70 and 110 pounds. Gray wolves are larger in the northwestern United States, Canada, and Alaska where adult males weigh 85 to 115 pounds and occasionally reach 130 pounds. * The average length (tip of nose to tip of tail) of an adult female gray wolf is 4.5 to 6 feet; adult males average 5 to 6.5 feet. The average height (at the shoulder) of a gray wolf is 26 to 32 inches. * Adult gray and red wolves have 42 teeth, while adult humans have 32. * The massive molars and powerful jaws of a wolf are used to crush the bones of its prey. The biting capacity of a wolf is 1,500 pounds of pressure per square inch. The strength of a wolf's jaws makes it possible to bite through a moose femur in six to eight bites. In comparison, a German shepherd has a biting pressure of 750 pounds per square inch. A human has a much lower biting pressure of 300 pounds per square inch. * Gray wolves prey primarily on large, hoofed mammals such as white-tailed deer, mule deer, moose, elk, caribou, bison, Dall sheep, musk oxen, and mountain goat and smaller mammals, such as beaver and the snowshoe hare.
Copyright 2006, The Hamilton Spectator.
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Additional related reading/information:
Newspaper
ponies up for victim of wolf attack
Globe and Mail, Canada - Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada - A three-year-old girl, the youngest of six people attacked by a black wolf Monday near the Northern
Ontario community of Wawa, has done what hundreds couldn't: extract
$100 from the Sault Star. Lou Maulucci, publisher of the Sault
Star, said yesterday he'll make good on an offer that ex-publisher
James Curran made 81 years ago and pay $100 to Leah Morgan.
"This is to inform the public that the Sault Daily Star
will pay $100 to the first person who can establish to the
satisfaction of
the editor that any timber or brush wolf has attacked any
person in Algoma," Mr. Curran had stated.
Newspaper to pay girl injured in wolf attack 'sustained 10 wounds to her right arm as the wolf tried to drag her into the bush
by the hood of her coat. Worse still were the 10 rabies shots
the Marathon, Ontario, girl had to endure Tuesday before the
wolf carcass tested negative. Not surprisingly, the little
girl also has developed a fear of dogs. “She will not go near a
dog
at this moment,” her mother said. “We're in the middle of
construction right now and we have to park the car two houses
down where they have a big dog that looks like a wolf. And she
won't even step outside the house if she knows we have
to go to the car. “We had to park further down.” Leah’s
sister, five-year-old Madison, who watched the attack, also is
coping. “She’s traumatized, as well, of dogs,”
her mother said. “They're both going through the same thing. She
wasn't
injured, but she was emotionally injured.”'
Wolf Attack Victim Gets Money From The Sault Star No rabies in wolf that attacked campers
Wolf
attacks beachgoers
News24, South Africa - Montreal - A black wolf sowed terror at a popular Canadian beach, attacking six people -- including four children -- before it was shot dead, an official with the Canadian province of Ontario said on Thursday. The victims at first believed the animal was a large black dog when it appeared in broad daylight on Monday and then attacked beachgoers along the shores of Lake Superior, Melanie Dufresne, spokesperson for the ministry of natural resources, told AFP. The victims were bitten in the arm, hands, ankles and head and were hospitalised but have since been released, she said. It took several terrifying minutes before the animal was finally chased from the beach. The incident occurred in a provincial park, only a few hundred metres from a main cross-country highway, where the animal was shot several hours later. The wolf, which weighed 33kg, did not have rabies and appeared to be healthy, said Brent Patterson, a wolf specialist at the ministry. The animal was most likely two to three years old and "was not starving," Patterson said. Wolf attacks on humans are considered extremely rare, he said. "There's never been any proven fatality in the wild in North America."
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