Sask. wolf attack was entirely unprovoked, victim says

A man who was attacked by a wolf in Northern Saskatchewan about a week ago says the incident was entirely unprovoked.

Ivan Salahub has been delivering supplies to northern mine sites for about three decades and his trip last Saturday to the Key Lake mill was very routine.

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He had stopped a roadside turnout on Highway 914 about 90 kilometres from the mill to inspect his tires, lights and airbags when the wolf went in for the attack at about 6:15 p.m.

“I stop there every time I go up to Key Lake just to do it. It is a nice clear spot and everything else and I didn’t complete it because she attacked me and she tried seven times before she finally bit me on the eighth time, and by that time, I was beside my driver’s door,” Salahub told larongeNOW.

“I kept on kicking and waving my arms and yelling and everything else and she just kept on coming.”

Salahub was able to pull himself into his truck before the wolf was able to do more damage. He sustained a deep bite to his calf and was bleeding profusely.

Salahub then wrapped the wound with T-shirts and he was fortunate enough another trucker driver, with experience as a first responder, was travelling south towards him.

“He took a look at my so-called bandage I made out of my T-shirts, looked at it and said it’s not good,” Salahum remarked.

“He got everything out of this first aid kit, plus the first aid kit from the truck behind him and they cleaned as much as they could my wound and wrapped it up properly.”

Salahub later received medical attention at Cameco’s Key Lake mill before being seen by a doctor at a hospital. He is currently being treated for rabies as a precaution as it is still unknown whether the wolf was rabid.

The Saskatchewan Conservation Officer Service’s Wildlife Human Attack Response Team is still investigating.

Salahub is going public with his story because he wants people to know he in no way provoked an attack.

“I just want to say if it was them being provoked by a wolf and everything else, what would they do? I’m trying to save my life,” he said.

“I am 72 years old and I was fortunate enough to be able to get away from it. I’m suffering a little bit right now, but it’s not going to deter me. I want people to have the facts. It was unprovoked. I didn’t even have so much as a cigarette in my hand or anything else. I was just doing a visual walk around my vehicle.”

Wolf attacks in Saskatchewan are very rare. In the last 22 years, there has been four documented attacks, with one being fatal.

— with files from CJME News

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