The province of Drenthe no longer has to pay compensation to a sheep farmer from Beilen after a series of wolf attacks in 2021 and 2022. This has been determined by the highest administrative court of this country in a final ruling.
According to the Council of State, after some back and forth discussions, the province sufficiently compensated the sheep farmer with more than 10,000 euros for the wolf attacks. A dozen sheep have been killed by wolf attacks. In addition, the veterinarian euthanized a number of seriously injured sheep.
The sheep farmer went to court because he believes that Drenthe and claims handler BIJ12 have taken far too little account of the fact that the sheep killed are of the rare and more expensive Shropshire breed. It is an English sheep breed. The sheep are recognizable by their black heads and white wool.
The Council of State does not agree with the 64-year-old Beiler sheep farmer. This points to a valuation advice from the Association of Special Sheep Breeds (VSS), which the province has adopted. The VSS advice shows that prices for Shropshires around 2022 were lower than the sheep farmer claims.
Furthermore, the Council rejects the claims for consequential damages and additional damages. According to the Beilenaar, the ewes became so upset after the wolf attacks that they no longer gave birth to lambs. According to the Council of State, the sheep farmer has not substantiated these claims with hard evidence.
The Council of State also rejects the sheep farmer’s claim that he suffered damage because he could no longer use his sheep in a Christmas tree farm. According to the sheep farmer, Shropshires are the only sheep species that do not eat young tree bark, making them ideally suited to keeping grass and weeds short in tree nurseries.
The sheep farmer could no longer use the Shropshires in the Christmas tree farm because it was not surrounded by high anti-wolf fences. The Christmas tree grower would then have held the Beilenese liable for the damage.
However, the Council of State believes that the damage caused by failure to comply with an agreement with the Christmas tree nursery should first and foremost be borne by the entrepreneur. Furthermore, there is also no hard evidence of that damage in this case. And the sheep farmer has to make do with that.
