Sharp rise in wolf attacks on Dutch farm livestock
The number of attacks by wolves on sheep and other farm animals reached 491 in the first nine months of this year compared with 399 in 2023 as a whole, according to figures from registration agency BIJ12.
The actual number of attacks is likely to be higher because farmers are not required to register them with the agency. The figures only include attacks that have been proven to be the work of a wolf.
Most attacks – 237 – took place in Gelderland province where the total has doubled in a year. In Noord-Brabant, a rogue wolf appears to have left the province, and the number of attacks has fallen from 50 in 2020 to just 12 so far this year.
Farmers whose livestock is attacked by wolves are entitled to compensation and so far almost €400,000 has been paid out by the provincial authorities.
In almost all the cases, farmers had not taken enough steps to protect their animals, such as installing wolf-proof fencing and locking their animals up at night, BIJ12 said.
News agency ANP reported in September that almost half the €10 million fund to help farmers protect their flocks is still unused.
At least 55 wolf cubs were born in the Netherlands this year, most of whom are in the Veluwe heathland region, according to BIJ12 in September.
The Netherlands is now known to have 11 wolf packs and several lone wolves, one of which caused panic in the Utrechtse Heuvelrug area earlier this summer. In 2021, there was just one pack, in 2022 four and last year nine.
The provincial authorities have been struggling to come up with measures to deter wolf attacks or keep away wolves that have become too used to people, all of which have floundered because of the animal’s protected status.
Farmers’ party and coalition partner BBB, which has been lobbying to restrict the wolves’ protected status, recently called for a “wolf-free zone the size of the Netherlands”.
The Netherlands has since supported a proposal to weaken wolves’ protected status in Europe as a whole, by backing downgrading their status from ‘ strictly protected’ to ‘protected’.
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