A debate on Tuesday night on the future of the wolf in the Netherlands involved several heated exchanges between coalition partners BBB and PVV as well as opposition parties Partij voor de Dieren and D66.

The debate marked the 11th time Caroline van der Plas (BBB), who earlier supported a comment from BBB MP Henk Vermeer about “a wolf-free zone the size of the Netherlands”, had requested a debate to make her case for a cull.

Van der Plas, left to play to a gallery filled with angry farmers, said attacks by wolves on livestock, dogs and joggers, and confrontations with children on their way to school put people in “daily fear”.

[The jogger in question encountered a wolf but was not attacked by it]

PVV MP Dion Graus rejected the idea of a cull and said limiting wolf numbers should be done by birth control. “People are treating the wolf like a pariah,” he said.

“The Netherlands is not a nice country for wolves. If I spoke Wolf I would say: Guys, turn around, don’t come here. There is no nature in this country worth speaking of, it’s all tupperware,” Graus said.

PvdD MP Ines Kostic pointed out that in 95% of the attacks on livestock, farmers had not wolf-proofed their herds. A recent analysis showed that less than 2% of herds in Gelderland are protected by proper electric fencing, for which farmers can get financial support.

Van der Plas said the fences were “the world upside down”. “Should we adapt our lives to a predator?” she asked.

D66 MP Anne-Marijke Podt told Van der Plas of effectively crying wolf by “exaggerating” the danger. Van der Plas was “not the only one to talk to people in the countryside”, she said.

NSC MP Diederik Boomsma agreed that wolves pose “unacceptable problems” in a densely populated country like the Netherlands and re-introduced the idea of deterring wolves that approach people using paintballs, a measure proposed by the Gelderland provincial authorities and banned earlier in court.

Graus, who argued that wild boars and dogs pose a greater danger than wolves was told by JA21 MP Joost Eerdmans to “stop raving” but was complimented by Podt for his ïmpassioned plea”, while GroenLinks-PvdA MP Laura Bromet said “We must learn to live with the wolf”.

Holiday bookings

VVD MP Thom van Campen asked the junior minister about a drop in holiday bookings for Drenthe – where there are several wolves – but had no figures to back this up. Asked by Van Campen if he would go to Drenthe on holiday junior farm minister Jean Rummenie said “he certainly would”.

There are currently between 104 and 124 wolves in the Netherlands, provincial wildlife agency BIJ12 estimates.

Any decision made by the cabinet to curb their number would have to depend on the measures to relax the wolves’ protected status currently being worked on by the European Commission.

Ahead of the new rules, the cabinet is making plans to tackle “problem wolves”, a definition of which has yet to be formulated.