Following the lead of Dutch Fauna Protection Organisation (Faunabescherming), Belgian NGO Animal Rights will also press charges against a Dutch sheep farmer injured by a wolf on Sunday and the Mayor who gave permission to kill the animal.
On Sunday morning, a farmer from the Dutch village of Wapse, part of Westerveld, was injured when he tried to chase a wolf off his property. The animal had killed some of his sheep and was still within the property perimeter. The Deputy Mayor of Westerveld ordered the wolf to be shot about an hour after the incident, after consulting with Mayor Rikus Jager and the police.
According to Belgian NGO Animal Rights, the wolf should not have been shot after the incident. The organisation is also considering filing charges against both the Deputy Mayor who was involved in the decision to shoot the wolf on Sunday and the person who fired the shot.
The NGO states that the shooting violated the Habitats Directive, in which wolves are considered a protected species. Animal rights organisation Bite Back will also join the action, a spokesperson announced.
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Jager said on Sunday that the municipal authority had to act very quickly because human safety was at stake and there was acute danger. Animal Rights, however, argues that the danger had already passed.
The organisation also believes that the fence around the property should have been opened to allow the wolf to escape. The Mayor, however, states that that would have been too risky and the wolf would then have attacked other people.
On Sunday evening, the Fauna Protection Organisation also announced it would file a complaint against the sheep farmer and Mayor Jager, declaring that it was "not an attack by a wolf on a human, but a human on a wolf."
