But according to the lawyer, this cannot be the case because it would not be possible to deviate from other legal requirements. “In this situation, the Nature Conservation Act has been violated by killing a protected animal,” the lawyer writes. The lawyer also considers Article 175 not applicable. Because then there must be serious disorder or disaster.
The assessment of the lawyer of the municipality of Westerveld is that the Police Act did apply. According to Jan Brouwer, professor of General Legal Science at the University of Groningen, the municipality is missing the point here. “There must be an immediate danger and then he can possibly take violent measures as a kind of defensive reaction, emergency defense in legal jargon. But the end must justify the means. If you can achieve the end with a less drastic means, such as anesthetic, then you have to resort to that. But in a situation like the one that happened in Wapse you cannot appeal to the police law. Absolutely not.”
Because the shooting took place at 9:02 am and the biting incident just after 7:00 am. After the wolf bit the sheep farmer, he became stuck in a plot with solar panels that was fenced with electric fencing. The ‘stun’ option was indeed considered, according to the Woo documents. “This was not chosen because of the place where it lay and the distance from it. There is then a risk that a tranquilizer dart will not hit the animal. And that you would then stress or chase away an animal that has previously attacked a human.”