Sheep farmer Marjoke Oenema from Wittelte, who has 11 dead sheep after 3 attacks in November and December, is not reassured. “It is suspiciously quiet in the vicinity. We have 60 percent of our sheep in the stable and the rest outside between high wires. That is going well now. But I don’t think that is a guarantee for the future. The wolf can come back: super strong , super intelligent and super brutal,” she fears.
Oenema and her husband have repeatedly scratched their heads whether they still think it is feasible to keep sheep. “We have now decided to do everything we can. We will continue as long as it does not make us mentally ill. Now it is fine again, but in the period after those three attacks we had pain in our stomach because of the fear of another attack. attack.” It is certain for Oenema that she will say goodbye to half of the animals if the wolf turns out to be a recurring problem.
Perhaps her fear has already come true, because yesterday a vet had to euthanize fourteen sheep after a wolf attack in Boijl, just across the border in Friesland. RTV Drenthe has seen the photos, but most of them are too gruesome to show. The backs of several sheep were eaten and three sheep were half eaten. In the morning, sheep farmer Roelof Groen expressed the hope that six animals had to be euthanized. In the evening it turned out that there were fourteen.
The wolf attack literally makes Green howl. He calls it a thick noose. “Thirty lambs were also lost with those dead sheep. I sell a sheep with two lambs for about 300 euros. The question is whether I will be paid that as damage,” he says. As it feels now, he wants to stop. “I’m 72 years old. I don’t have sheep to feed the wolf, do I? If I want to fence my 300 sheep in six different places, I have to employ three people.”
Sheep farmer Stefan Worst from Vledder has been keeping his sheep indoors for a few months to protect them from a wolf attack. He has had to deal with eighteen dead sheep in six attacks despite extensive efforts to keep the wolf out of his yard with the installation of a wolf-proof fence. In the event of an attack, the wolf managed to find its way to its sheep because the ditch was not fenced. And wolves are good swimmers.
“Keeping the sheep inside costs me extra time and money. I give them concentrates in the barn and that is expensive,” says Worst. He especially wants to keep the lambs indoors, but that is probably not possible. “You can’t keep everything inside. We will soon have 200 lambs and 150 breeding sheep here. And we still need a group of lambs. Then 150 more lambs will be added,” says Worst. He has considered quitting, but will continue for a while.