Oregon Jogger Attacked by Owl Runs in Circles Screaming
As an unlucky jogger learned last week, owls will fuck you up. Ron Jaecks was out for run early Tuesday morning at a park in Salem, Oregon, when something swooped from the darkness and latched onto his knit hat, puncturing his scalp.
"It was like a huge electric shock ran through my body, but also like I got hit in the head with a two-by-four all at the same time," Jaecks told the Statesman Journal. "Or maybe a strike of lightning."
Jaecks, who initially didn't know what had attacked him, responded as anyone would in such a situation: He ran in circles and screamed while thinking he was about to die.
From the Statesman Journal:
Jaecks, 58, immediately began to run faster, trying to escape his assailant.
Running in circles and screaming, the general surgeon for Kaiser Permanente began to think that he was having a stroke or an aneurysm.
Jaecks took off in the direction of Mission Street in hopes of being seen by someone at Salem Hospital, not knowing exactly what had happened in the park.
But the bird wasn't done with him yet. It attacked again as Jaecks tried to flee the park, landing directly onto the surgeon's now hatless head. This time, Jaecks looked up in time to spot the winged beast before it flew away.
Realizing it was a bird attack and not something requiring immediate attention, Jaecks ran home, washed his wounded scalp, and called his friend David Craig, a biology professor and animal behavior specialist at Willamette University.
"I called David and described what had happened," Jaecks said. "He immediately said it was either a barred owl or a great horned owl."
With wingspans as wide as 5 feet and talons as long as eight inches, great horned owls can hit their prey with nearly 30 pounds of force.
Jaecks said he hopes to keep running at the park, which is located near the hospital where he works.
"I run in that particular park every morning because the trail is soft," he said. " I don't want to stop running there, but I have never been so frightened in my life."
this is the man who was attacked by the owl and then ran around screaming pic.twitter.com/I4aBbIsl3g
— max read (@max_read) January 19, 2015
