Wolf -free zones, rubber bullets or grids: The Hague is looking for a solution

Finally the time had come. For months, BBB leader Caroline van der Plas had asked for a grand debate about the wolf. The PVV also recently agreed. And so the knives were sharpened. And Van der Plas was able to record it for the residents of the countryside, farmers and citizens, who are in ‘daily fear’. The return of the wolf ended in « a fiasco, » says Van der Plas.

Wolven experts from the first hour appear to have had ‘completely wrong’; Wolves are not shy, « they walk through the streets or sleep in the gardens, » they attack cattle and sometimes even people, and they can indeed jump over fences. That must be over, Van der Plas believes: « Let’s agree that in a small, densely populated country there is no room for hundreds of wolves in the long term. » There are now about one hundred and twenty. According to BBB, wolves must be able to be driven away and, in the most extreme case, also killed.

Rubber bullets and scents

Many MPs share her worries. NSC member Diederik Boomsma argues for « preventive aversive conditioning »; Keeping the wolf shy to prevent the predator from getting used to people. « With paintball rifles, with rubber bullets, perhaps with channels or with scents, anyway, without too much bureaucratic Romslomp. »

Rasters must be placed, with easily available subsidies, and mayors must get ‘back cover’ from the national government if they want to have a wolf shoot a wolf in the event of acute threat. He must « stand square » behind local drivers, says the CDA through MP Eline Vedder. « The CDA is of the opinion that there is actually no place for the Wolf in the Netherlands. But apparently the Wolf has a different opinion about that. And it is heavily protected. And then we have to relate to it. »

A problematic position takes PVV spokesperson Dion Graus. He is known as an avid animal lover, and had already wanted to make the first wolves in the Netherlands infertile years ago. « Then the right end of exercise would have been. » That would have saved the wolf a lot of misery. Graus: « We don’t know nature in the Netherlands. If I would speak the wolvental, I would have said to the wolf: turn around, don’t come in our country. The animal is completely unhappy here. It is hunted, is treated like a pariah. I know as a PVV player how that feels. »

Be sure to go on holiday in Drenthe

The question is what the cabinet can do against the widely regretted confrontations between wolf, people and especially sheep. State Secretary Jean Rummenie (Agriculture and Nature, BBB) sets the safety of man and cattle on one. People who are afraid of wolves have ‘right worries’. But that does not mean that the State Secretary, for example, would advise tourists to cancel their vacation to Drenthe. « I would definitely go on vacation to Drenthe. »

Rummenie wants to ‘prevent as much as possible’ and also promote that mayors can ‘intervene’ quickly in the event of acute danger. To this end, he wants to introduce a general administrative order, which describes precisely when there is a « problem wolf ». Rigorous national measures may follow later, if it is clear in which ‘state of conservation’ the current population of wolves in the Netherlands is located.

That is being investigated. This involves whether the population is viable and has sufficient habitats. Rummenie, however, also wants to involve the « socially responsible state of maintenance, » namely: how many wolves can a small country actually handle without risk of cattle conflicts?

The State Secretary has already been to Brussels and has discussed it with responsible European Commissioner Jessika Roswall. « I am going to ask for customization. I don’t know what form that has. But I think that, as the most destroyed Member State in Europe, we have every reason to ask for customization in this file. »

Control of packs

He does not rule out the possibility that ‘wolf -free zones’ are set in the Netherlands, and that it may, if the survival of a healthy population of wolves, will actually come to ‘control of packs’. In that case, he should best investigate whether a slope cannot be replaced by contraception, as PVV player Graus wants.

But, says Rummenie: « It is apparent from an exploration that contraception at wolves via arrows is a method that still has to be developed. Contraception is not a method that can be applied in the short term. »

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