On April 17, a farmer and his family in Winnipeg, Manitoba were out for an afternoon walk to get some fresh air and check on their cows when they were chased by four large timber wolves.
Jason Van Damme posted a video of the incident to Facebook. In the post, he says that immediately upon walking up to the cows and horses he noticed a large wolf, as well as another wolf ahead of it. The wolves were approaching the cows’ newly born calves. As a cattle rancher, Van Damme has a duty to protect his herd. He’s been able to scare off wolves many times in the past by yelling and chasing them when there were only one or two, so that’s what he did. Only this time, the wolves had a different reaction. They began to charge Van Damme at full speed. That’s when he noticed there were actually four wolves, not two.
Van Damme had all four wolves running after him, after he’d just disturbed them from their dinner. “I’m screaming at the top of my lungs, waving my hands and legs, I felt so vulnerable I felt like I was screaming ‘LOOK AT ME I’M VULNERABLE COME GET ME I HAVE A BROKEN WING’ because the louder I screamed, the faster they came at me, they moved across the field at lightning speed!” said Van Damme in the Facebook post. By the time he realized what was happening, he thought he was lunch because the wolves were moving so fast. Van Damme was with his 80-pound golden retriever, Ginger, and said the wolves made her look like a puppy.
“I felt like I wasn’t even running to safety but my death spot where I was going to be eaten and I would have to sacrifice myself for the kids,” said Van Damme. “Alyssa & the kids were maybe 40 yards behind me. I had to close the distance between me & the kids & get a weapon or something because there was no chance I was going to fight that off.”
Van Damme keeps an old truck parked in the brush near the edge of the field in case of an emergency. He and his family were able to reach the truck and get in to safety.
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