Several sheep were killed during an attack in the Odoorn Sheep Park and other sheep are walking around seriously injured. Some other sheep have fled and have not yet returned to the flock. Management Foundation Natural Odoorn points the accusing finger at the wolf.
The attack took place during the day yesterday, until now wolves seemed to mostly attack sheep in the evening and at night. “We have not seen the wolves ourselves, but it seems quite clear that they are behind it,” says chairman Berber Ubbink of the Natural Odoorn Foundation.
It is not the first time that the herd in the Sheep Park has been attacked. “A wolf also visited us this spring. A sheep was bitten to bits and another was eaten in the buttocks.”
This time the attack on the herd caused much more misery, says Ubbink. “Now at least twenty sheep have been bitten. And in a clumsy manner, in the face or neck. It is very bad, I was almost vomiting from misery.”
Two sheep did not survive the attack, but it didn’t stop there. “We also had to put a couple to sleep. And then there are a few sheep walking around, no idea where they are. They were so stressed that we couldn’t catch them yesterday.”
Ubbink is despondent after the new attack on her sheep. “So you don’t do anything about it. The sheep are behind a wolf grid at night and you let them out in the morning. Not very long after that, the attack must have happened yesterday. I don’t know what else you can do. This way So you can no longer graze areas.”
She points out that sheep cannot defend themselves. “They are very vulnerable animals. If a donkey is attacked, it will kick its attacker to death if it gets the chance. But a sheep has no defense at all. It is simply a victim.”
Sheep farmers in Drenthe can take preventive measures against the wolf through subsidies. There are currently two packs of wolves living in our province. Cubs were born this year in both the pack in Central Drenthe and in the Drenthe-Frisian region.
DNA research must provide a definitive answer as to whether it was actually a wolf that was responsible for the attack on the sheep in Odoorn.