After a period of relative calm in the triangle Wapse, Doldersum, Vledder, it hit again in the night from Monday to Tuesday. When Stefan Worst went out into the country early in the morning to count his sheep, he found three dead lambs, barely six months old.
eaten bare
It was the seventh attack on his animals. The previous times, DNA research has shown, a wolf was the attacker. Worst assumes that this time will be no different. A wolf pair lives in the Drents-Friese Wold. Wolf attacks are regularly reported in the area.
One of the lambs was, except for the head, almost eaten bare. The other two animals had only been bitten to death. Eleven more lambs were injured to varying degrees. Of these, eight animals were in such bad shape that they had to be euthanized by the vet.
“Look,” says the veterinary, pointing to a gaping hole in the buttock of one of the lambs. “For a wolf, this is one bite. A dog or fox cannot do this.”
Father Gerard Worst assists the vet in examining the injured animals. He is lost. “Then you will receive money from the province for installing wolf-resistant grids. Very nice, but what good is it if it doesn’t work?”
Damage paid
The independent appraiser, who is taking samples of the bite wounds on the cadavers on behalf of BIJ12 (which settles the wolf damage on behalf of the provinces), has visited Worst for the seventh time. If it turns out that the attack is the work of a wolf, the sheep farmer will be compensated for the damage.
“It takes a very long time these days before the damage is actually paid out, but in the end Stefan gets an amount per lamb. Unfortunately, they forget that those animals, when they are big enough for slaughter, will be worth much more,” sighs senior. “Besides that, we have kept the ewes with lambs in the barn for a long time this year, precisely to prevent wolf attacks. These are all additional costs and are not reimbursed. No, this way the fun ends very quickly.”
According to senior, the lambs ran behind a fence of seven wires one above the other. “Stefan has picked up a special, very powerful power device from Germany. But that doesn’t stop the wolf either.”