Text Guido Camps We live in Zeist and my daughters often play in a playground in the middle of the woods in the Utrechtse Heuvelrug. I enjoy seeing my little girls having fun, but I can’t help thinking about the news a couple of days ago that a wolf had come up to someone walking their dog there and attacked the dog.
Just to be clear: as a vet, I like pretty much all animals and I think the wolf is an impressive beast. But what I find problematic about the wolf issue is the lack of nuance in the debate. Animal welfare organizations reported the ‘cowardly, brutal murder of a wolf’ to the police after it was shot edad following a biting incident in Wapse. Meanwhile, anti-wolf groups are itching to hunt down all wolves and chase them out of the Netherlands, regardless. Both positions are completely untenable. Whatever we do, wolves will continue to come to the Netherlands and stay here. But we are constantly being told the wolf is a shy shadow that you never actually see and won’t really notice. That too is rubbish. It’s awful if you find mauled sheep in your field in the morning (your own livestock!) and the first reaction from some people is not ‘How terrible!’ but ‘How can you be sure it was a wolf? And why didn’t you install a proper wolf-repellent fence?’
I keep reading ‘We need to learn how to live alongside wolves’ but I can’t find any WUR publication that tells us how to achieve this
Another example. While someone was still in hospital being treated for a wolf bite (even though the Wolves in the Netherlands platform was telling us in 2018 ‘there is no need to fear that happening’), people were worried not about how the patient was doing but about the legal situation. The mayor was criticized for giving an exemption to allow the wolf to be shot and the farmer was criticized for attacking the wolf.
I want my daughters to still be able to play in the woods and I also want room for wolves in the woods. I keep reading ‘We need to learn how to live alongside wolves’ but I can’t find any WUR publication that tells us how to achieve this. All the people who assume wolves will always avoid humans have apparently forgotten how we ended up with chihuahuas. I expect WUR to come up with a clear viewpoint on this issue, preferably as soon as possible.
Guido Camps (40) is a vet and researcher at Human Nutrition and OnePlanet. He enjoys baking, beekeeping and unusual animals.
