With a wolf biting off in Wapse, strict wolf protocols had to be translated into action for the first time on Sunday. The question is whether all went well.
Doubts arise whether mayor Rikus Jager of the municipality of Westerveld rightly had the biting wolf shot on Sunday. The actions of the farmer, who tried to chase the animal away with a pitchfork and shovel, are also under the magnifying glass. Both the hunter and the farmer have been reported by Fauna Protection and Animal Rights.
That makes it a legal question the strict rules to protect the wolf have been properly observed, by both mayor Jager and the injured hobby farmer. It is not known how the sheep farmer views this development. So far, the resident of Wapse has not responded to media questions.
‘Not an acute situation’
Ecologist Dick Klees of Wolven in the Netherlands has reservations about their actions. “If a wolf poses an acute safety risk, a mayor may intervene immediately on the basis of the Municipal Act. But the wolf was trapped in Wapse for two hours before being shot. That is not an acute situation. Moreover, it is a sparsely populated area. What security risk is there? Let me put it this way: the issue raises many questions to justify the mayor’s decision to shoot the wolf.”
Also, according to Klees, the farmer should not have attacked the wolf with a pitchfork and shovel. “As a sheep farmer you have a duty to protect your animals. You may chase a wolf, but you may not injure the wolf. The wolf is a protected animal. I understand that the adrenaline flows through your body, but you have to keep thinking.”
‘Every situation is different’
Mayor Rikus Jager thinks he did the right thing. According to him, the so-called escalation ladder of the Interprovincial Wolf Plan was passed on Sunday morning before action was taken. This plan states that it must be tried first to chase the wolf away.
If that doesn’t work, then you have to try to ‘condition’ the wolf. “That is giving the wolf an experience that is unpleasant. A pain stimulus. This could be done with a paintball gun, for example,” explains ecologist Klees. This step requires permission from the province of Drenthe, which is responsible for nature policy.
But because Jager ultimately believes that there is an acute danger to the environment, he decides to use his authority as mayor to eliminate the wolf on Sunday morning. “It’s nice that you have protocols, but you can never fully comply with them. Every situation is different. You have to act in the spirit of the protocol,” says Jager.
In addition, according to the police, the wolf did not allow itself to be chased away. “At 06.50 we received the first report of the wolf attack. At first we gave the advice to chase the wolf away, because it is shy by nature. But he did not let himself be chased away. Very exceptional,” says spokeswoman Tessel Horsman.
‘Discussion is jumbled’
Back to Sunday morning. The sheep farmer in Wapse discovers a hunting wolf in his fenced pasture around 6.45 am. At least one sheep is killed, two are injured and later killed. The farmer tries to chase the wolf away with a pitchfork and a shovel. Moments later, the animal bites the sheep farmer’s arm.
Mayor Jager says he receives a call at 7:30 am. He then deliberates with a select group. “Concerts like this go hand in hand. It is bittersweet who you can call on a Sunday morning between 7 and 8 am,” says Jager. Finally, a consultation with the police, deputy mayor Henk Doeven and two others “who understand wolves” follows.
‘Fence had to open’
Jager does not say who the two experts consulted are. After 45 minutes the verdict follows at 8.15 am: the wolf must be shot. “The wolf showed that he was chasing after sheep and people until the last moment. This was apparent from the statements of the people who were on site at the time.”
According to Jager, it could not be said with certainty that the wolf would remain in the fenced pasture. “How the wolf got inside the enclosure I don’t know. But apparently he got into it. So theoretically he could get out too. Some now say: the gate should have been opened. We also looked at that, but what happens then? The wolf could have run away, but it could also have entered the garden of those people.”
Moreover, according to Jager, cyclists regularly pass the meadow. “The precautionary principle weighed heavily on me: it could not be ruled out 100 percent that there was danger.”
‘Know how the headlines were different’
There is almost an hour between the moment of decision and the moment of shooting. On the spot, a so-called police dog handler checks whether the wolf can be anesthetized, says police spokeswoman Tessel Horsman. “But that turned out not to be an option because of the place where he was and the risk of escape.” And so it is decided to give the wolf a fatal shot. That happens around 9:10 am.
How was the wolf’s behavior at that time? “The wolf’s behavior does not stop if it lies down quietly on the ground for five minutes. Circumstances do not change,” says Jager. The mayor speaks of a “two battle”. “You act according to circumstances. If that wolf had caught a kid today, I know what the headlines were like. Given the circumstances, we were dealing with a problem wolf. Then I specifically mean this wolf and not the wolf in general.”
If, on the basis of further investigation, the Justice Department decides to prosecute the mayor and the sheep farmer, the court must assess whether Jager has properly handled the first collision between a human and a wolf in the Netherlands according to the rules.