Kenton Joel Carnegie Wolf Attack - Aftermath

Aftermath

Dr. Paul Paquet stood firmly by his initial conclusion that Carnegie was killed by either wolves or a black bear, but circumstantial evidence was inconclusive as to which predator was responsible; "The jury's decision was a poor one, which I'd put in the same category as 'O.J. Simpson is innocent'". He continued to cite the extensive dragging of the body and atypical choice of organs consumed from the body as evidence against wolves, and reiterated that it is not true that all black bears at that period would have been hibernating. He also noted that the presence of wolf tracks was compelling evidence implicating wolves but not definitive proof that wolves were responsible for Carnegie's death. Paquet maintained that the reports by McNay, Geist, and Patterson that were commissioned by the Carnegie family were seriously flawed, riddled with factual mistakes, misinterpretations, logical inconsistencies, and relevant omissions. He maintained that McNay and Geist overreached with the evidence and confused theory and assumptions with fact and proof, while consistently ignoring relevant information. He stated that McNay provided no basis for his estimate on the amount of flesh consumed from the body, which was a gross exaggeration resulting from McNay's confusion between volume and mass. Paquet argued that the pathologist who carried out the autopsy estimated 25% of the body volume was consumed, all soft tissue and internal organs. Based on rigorous forensic techniques, Paquet and Walker estimated 8–10 kg of soft tissue was consumed. Significantly, most large muscle masses were left intact, with the skin completely torn away. The most egregious omission identified was the misrepresentation and distortion of the major finding of Paquet and Walker that Carnegie was killed by wolves or a black bear. McNay and Geist consistently and falsely claimed that Paquet and Walker concluded that Carnegie was killed by a black bear. Overall, he accused McNay and Geist of failing to exercise prudence, caution, and due diligence when dealing with physical and circumstantial evidence of questionable quality and reliability. Further, Paquet showed that Patterson’s conclusions were largely based on incorrect information.

Dr. L. David Mech, an internationally recognized wolf expert, stated; "Mr Carnegie's death is a terrible tragedy but one fatal wolf attack in the recorded history of North America does not warrant widespread alarm".

Valerius Geist launched criticism on the official investigation, stating that it was too focused on establishing Carnegie’s cause of death, while ignoring wider policy issues such as the alleged failure of some wolf biologists to notice that the wolves of that area had been acting in an unusually bold manner toward humans before the attack, and that there was no real action taken to tackle the circumstances which he believed had led to the attack; freely available human waste added to a scarcity of natural prey, stated by Geist to be a result of increased wolf populations. He also criticised the wildlife officials of the area for taking no action against wolves clearly showing signs of habituation to humans until it was too late. He pointed to the fact that wolves had been sighted in the area weeks before Carnegie's death, and would frequently feed at the Point North garbage dump whilst ignoring workers. This he argued, caused the wolves to no longer see humans as a source of fear, but of food. In conclusion to his report, he wrote;

“In reviewing earlier the historical material pertaining to wolf attacks on humans I discovered some very striking ironies, the most striking being that while North American wolf biologists vehemently opposed the wolf image portrayed in Grimm's fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood, and failed to research and develop an understanding of when wolves became dangerous to people and when not, their colleagues studying coyotes did just that! Biologists studying urban coyotes developed a sound understanding predicting when coyotes living in cities would attack children. The biologists studying coyotes were not in a state of political denial. And they put nobody at risk. Quite the contrary! As I have shown, wolves signal impending attacks on people a long time before it happens. They act very much like their smaller cousin, the coyote. Yet the vehemence with which the myth of the "benign wolf" is defended by environmental groups, but also individuals claiming to be scientists studying wolves, transcends reason.”

— "Statement by Valerius Geist pertaining to the death of Kenton Carnegie", Valerius Geist, Ph.D., Professional Biologist, Professor Emeritus of Environmental Science, The University of Calgary, 29 September 2007

Kenton's father, Kim, expressed concern that the Saskatchewan Environments plan to stop further wolf attacks were inadequate, and did not address the problem of landfills which were thought to have been fed upon by the wolves, causing them to become habituated to humans. He stated that the best measure would be to incinerate the garbage, rather than to abandon it.