Last week I delved into the discussion about the wolf during an emotional evening on the Utrechtse Heuvelrug. I notice that the wolf occupies my mind because so many aspects come together. The gap between the city and the countryside, for example. The concerns and wolf experiences of the country dwellers versus the city dreamers with their ideals, conceived in safe office towers. But also fear and safety. In that sense, the wolf discussion reminds me of the corona period, where fear was used as an instrument. There is censorship. People are pressured not to tell their real story. The farmers are blamed. It is the farmers' own fault, then they should have put up a fence to protect their cattle. And what are they complaining about, if a sheep suddenly dies, while they themselves contribute to the meat industry, in which millions of animals are slaughtered in the Netherlands every year! You notice that it is all a bit more nuanced if you just listen to the victims of the wolf. And all those experts who said that the wolf is really not dangerous, that it would be shy of people. And would really leave us alone? Well, those experts are also a bit shocked by what has happened since the wolf arrived in the Netherlands. I spoke to Erwin van Maanen, a predator expert and ecologist. He loves wolves. He has been studying them for 30 years. He has written books about them. And he also thought that the dangers of the wolf would not get that bad in the Netherlands. Now he warns of accidents. Van Maanen also says that a lot of disinformation about wolves is spread in the media. For example, that a wolf would never jump over a fence. While it has been known for years from a French study that they do. Van Maanen knew it, but no one wanted to listen. He says: 'A situation has arisen in the Netherlands where the wolf has actually become displaced, established here in a densely cultivated, technogenic landscape. Where there is so much intertwining between wolf habitats and people, that conflicts are now starting to arise that could one day result in a serious accident. That's what I'm afraid of. The ecological carrying capacity is not there for the wolf in the Netherlands. There is a new generation of wolves, who are getting used to people, who are ending up in suboptimal conditions. Those wolves are going to learn to hunt farm animals'. And no, fences don't help. Not only does the wolf jump over them. It is simply impossible to fence off thousands of kilometres of pasture with fences that are heavily electrified. Apart from the fact that you don't want to live in a country where people are 'safely' locked away behind fences with electricity: all the small game also gets stuck in those fences. The hedgehogs, the rabbits, the fawns. A dairy farmer who really wants to protect his animals has to keep them in the barn. But is that what we want? Shouldn't cows be back in the pasture? Farmers get less money for milk from cows that are kept indoors, because the Dutch want to pay for cows in the meadow. Why does the wolf come first? What is the agenda behind it? I wrote it before: if the wolf wins, the Green Mafia wins. People are forced back into concrete living environments, where children have to entertain themselves on fields with artificial grass and rubber tiles. With more and more people, we have to live in stacked houses, on top of each other. Smaller and smaller, higher and higher, so that if we are lucky we can still see a bit of nature in the distance from the window. In the meantime, the wolf is sowing division. The proponents and opponents are increasingly confronting each other. The facts no longer seem to matter. The media play a remarkable role, the incidents are kept small, because we should be happy with the wolf. Listen to the stories of the camping farmer and the vet on the Utrechtse Heuvelrug, who tell their story in this documentary, clearly traumatized. Do you think our work and this video are important? Then become a member of the Club van Dwarskijkers on DwarsNieuws.nl. By doing so, you support our work and gain access to exclusive content such as columns, podcasts and commercial-free videos. It only costs 15 euros (incl. VAT) per year.