“Waiting anxiously every day”: livestock farmers worried about wolf

Stefaan Lycke is a cattle dealer from Wingene, he wants politicians to take urgent action.

“Waiting anxiously every day”

“Every day I go to see the animals in the morning and evening to see if everything is ok. It’s always scary waiting.”

Stefaan buys and sells sheep and goats. He has not yet had a visit from the wolf, even though he is in the area. Stefaan does what he can to protect his animals.

“The sheep that walk here in the region or around them can be housed at night in the meadows, in the stables, but that is not really the intention this time of year. Those animals should be able to walk outside, in the free nature, in the grass, can graze from early morning to late at night.”

No subsidies

West Flemish livestock farmers who want to install a special fence do not receive any subsidies. There is only compensation if the wolf kills your animal. He is a protected species.

Stefaan looks at politics. “I think that some decisions will have to be made in the Flemish Government to cast that into a legal framework. What is possible, what is not possible. What I think must happen is that everything can be mapped out and that that animal can be kept under control somewhere on a secluded plot, piece of forest or whatever, that he does not ‘pass’ from one municipality to another at night to kill animals there.”

Emotional

Last weekend some sheep were killed in Ruiselede. And the wolf might stay here for a while.

“Many of our customers have four or five animals. Those people don’t look at the economic. It’s about the love for their animals. If that wolf kills some of their sheep there, you can’t pay for that with money. That’s it emotional,” Stefaan concludes.