EcoJust | Authors: Pauline Verheij (EcoJust) and Naomi Louchouarn (Humane World for Animals)

EcoJust today publishes Back in the Crosshairs: Wolf poaching in the Netherlands — the first systematic investigation into the nature, scale, and drivers of wolf persecution in the Netherlands. The findings are serious: at least 41 wolves have been poached since 2021, nearly 15% of all genetically confirmed wolves have vanished without explanation, and behind these disappearances lies a widespread network of organised poaching operating with near-total impunity.

What the investigation found

Since the return of the wolf to the Netherlands in 2018, at least 41 wolves have been poached, the majority on the Veluwe (province of Gelderland) and in the north-east of the Netherlands. Monitoring data further show that 38 of the 259 wolves genetically identified in the Netherlands (1 in 7) have disappeared in a manner that cannot be explained by natural mortality or emigration. But the true scale goes beyond the numbers alone. The investigation — based on interviews with 61 witnesses, social media monitoring and open-source research, and analysis of a decade of monitoring data — demonstrates that wolf persecution in the Netherlands is not a fringe phenomenon. It is a widespread network of organised poaching, operating with near-total impunity, with the tacit support of significant parts of the rural community.

Wolves are shot, run over, and possibly poisoned.  Carcasses are buried, incinerated in fire barrels, and dumped in slurry pits — techniques chosen specifically to destroy evidence. Witness testimony and social media research indicate that perpetrators are primarily drawn from the circles of farmers and hunters, connected by dense social networks and facilitated by social media platforms sharing real-time wolf sighting reports.

Five mutually reinforcing drivers

One of the central findings of the report is that wolf poaching in the Netherlands is not driven by a single cause and cannot therefore be resolved by a single measure. The investigation identifies five mutually reinforcing drivers:

The first driver is genuine grievances in rural communities — farmers and other livestock owner suffering losses, fear for the safety of children and pets, compensation schemes that vary arbitrarily between provinces, and a sense that government does not take these grievances seriously. At the same time, a significant proportion of farmers deliberately refrain from taking protective measures — which increases the likelihood of livestock attacks and fuels the conflict further.

The second driver is the role of social media, which amplifies grievances and fears, leading to radicalisation and growing hatred of wolves — while simultaneously facilitating the practical coordination of persecution.

The third driver is political normalisation: politicians who consistently frame the wolf as an alien presence that does not belong in the Dutch cultural landscape and who turn a blind eye to documented wolf persecution — thereby tacitly legitimising it.

The fourth driver is governance and enforcement failure. Fragmented governance and the gradual dismantling of wildlife law enforcement capacity in rural areas have created conditions in which poaching carries virtually no risk of detection or prosecution.

The fifth driver is socio-cultural identities — rooted in hunting culture, the close-knit solidarity of rural communities, and in some communities in the Bible Belt a theological conviction about human dominion over nature — that embed opposition to the wolf so deeply that policy can barely reach them.

What needs to happen

The report concludes with recommendations addressed to central government, the provinces, municipalities, enforcement authorities and the Public Prosecution Service, hunters’ and farmers’ organisations, media and journalists, social media platforms, and NGOs. These recommendations go beyond technical and legal measures to address the social and emotional dimensions of the conflict: the restoration of trust between government and rural communities, without which a lasting reduction of the conflict and peaceful coexistence with the wolf are not possible.

The full report Back in the Crosshairs: Wolf poaching in the Netherlands is available here in English and Dutch

Read the Dutch news post here.