LTO Noord wants outgoing minister Van der Wal to do more to protect farmers against predators such as the wolf. The farmers’ organization made this known in response to this morning’s incident in which a wolf was shot dead after the animal bit a sheep farmer.
“Political rules should not be more important than the safety and well-being of our farmers. This sheep farmer had done everything he could,” says LTO North chairman Dirk Bruins. “How the wolf got through the approved wolf grid needs to be investigated.”
According to Bruins, the incident indicates an urgent need for effective wolf management. “We are convinced that a balanced approach is possible, but we continue to warn about wolves in densely populated areas.” According to Bruins, with the exception of a few places, the Netherlands is not suitable as a habitat for the wolf.
Bruins went to visit the injured sheep farmer. “It is a huge shock. I also knew him personally, so you want to know what it is like now,” he says. According to Bruins, the sheep farmer heard a strange noise coming from his pasture at seven o’clock. “He immediately went to have a look and to his surprise a wolf suddenly appeared between the solar panels that was anything but shy.” According to Bruin, the man wanted to protect himself, his family and his living animals and tried to chase the wolf away. “But unfortunately he suffered serious injuries to his arm.”
Although the situation could have ended much worse, according to the LTO chairman. “It is very serious what happened, but it could also be different. I should not have thought that someone was bitten on the neck or something like that.”
According to Bruins, the sheep farmer had done well. “He had good wolf-resistant grids. And yet such an animal gets in in any way and then he can’t get out. Then such a sheep farmer also wants to protect his animals.” Bruins says opening the gate and letting the animal escape would not have been an option. “Then the beast had entered the garden and ended up in the residential area. Dangerous.”
“I am also a bit emotional, but I get really angry with those kinds of statements,” responds Bruins. “It’s very much about wolf behavior and then referring to wolves in their natural environment.” But according to him, that situation does not apply to the wolves in Drenthe. “It’s about Eastern Europe where large packs live in very large nature reserves. Then you can speak of natural behavior, but we are in such a densely populated area that such a wolf will show unnatural behavior.”
“This wolf can’t do anything anymore, but we also have to see how we deal with this further,” he says. According to the LTO chairman, the police, general practitioner and hospital initially did not know how to deal with this situation. “The knowledge is missing.”
In addition, Bruins hopes to expand the options for chasing away the wolf. “And also shooting if necessary. It should not be the case that wolves first attack people before shooting is possible. I think there are several signals that precede this and then you could also proceed to shooting.”
Chasing away the wolf is difficult because of European regulations. Bruins hopes that will change. “We have seen that it is now also possible and abroad that it is indeed possible. There are also possibilities for other protected animal species. If the need arises, much more can be done.”
Listen to Radio Drenthe tomorrow morning at 8:40 am for a conversation with LTO Noord chairman Dirk Bruins about the biting incident.