A video surveillance camera has caught a small flock of sheep being attacked and mauled to death by a single wolf in the Noord-Brabant village of Vlijmen late on Friday night.
The footage, shared by the farmers association ZLTO on Saturday, shows a wolf inside a sheep enclosure chasing down and snapping at the defenseless animals.
Four Scottish highlanders were killed, possibly by wolves, in the Noord-Brabant town of Someren over the past days. The cows were less than a year old. "They're no bigger than sheep. It happened at three different times," owner Jos Leenders said to NOS.
Leenders has around 150 Scottish highlanders spread over different areas of land. "I didn't know the wolf was so active here in the south. I wasn't prepared for that."
Agricultural pesticides used in the Netherlands may cause Parkinson's disease. Farmers who work with these pesticides are up to 60 percent more likely to contract the incurable brain disease, epidemiologist Roel Vermeulen said to Zembla.
So far this year 176 thousand chicken, pigs and cattle were killed in 13 barn fires, according to figures from animal rights group Wakker Dier. That is already far more than the 122 thousand animals that died in 31 fires last year, according to figures from the fire brigade and insurers. Animal rights organizations and coalition party D66 are demanding measures from Minister Carola Schouten of Agriculture, AD reports.
Agricultural organization LTO Nederland is threatening to take Dutch food safety authority NVWA to court over the fipronil contaminated egg scandal earlier this year. The NVWA must pay back the damages poultry farmers suffered due to this crisis, according to LTO. So far 120 poultry farmers joined this action in claiming damages around 50 million euros, RTL Nieuws reports.
Dutch food and consumer product safety authority NVWA added codes of another 14 poultry companies to its list of eggs contaminated with toxic insecticide fipronil. Foods that contain contaminated eggs are safe to eat, according to the federation of the Dutch foodstuffs industry FNLI based on its own research, NU.nl reports.
Agricultural organization LTO Nederland is furious that the Dutch food and consumer product safety authority NVWA advised consumers to show restraint in eating eggs until the results of an investigation into eggs' fipronil content are in. "That is a terrible and unnecessary statement", Eric Huber, chairman of the poultry farm department, said to Radio 1 Journaal on Wednesday. "It leads to unnecessary unrest among consumers."
Departing State Secretary Martijn van Dam of Economic Affairs wants to install cameras in Dutch slaughterhouses and give the footage to Dutch food safety authority NVWA to monitor abuse. This is in reaction to leaked footage showing horrible abuses in a Belgian slaughterhouse, AD reports.
The video from Tielt, Belgium shows pigs being kicked and beaten, being cut open while fully conscious and being drowned. The slaughterhouse, which also supplied some Dutch butchers, was closed indefinitely.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs is holding a crisis meeting with various farmers' unions and insurers on Monday to discuss the damage storms in Limburg and Noord-Brabant caused last week. On Friday LTO Nederland estimated that farmers in those provinces suffered about 100 million euros worth of damage
Russia is considering banning imports of all flowers from the Netherlands, claiming that the flowers contain pests. Dutch Agriculture and Horticulture organization thinks that the actual reason is politically motivated.
The European support measures for farmers affected by the Russian boycott has been extended to June next year. According to State Secretary Sharon Dijksma, the new measures should help agricultural entrepreneurs find a "good, social destination" for their fruits and vegetables.
This Thursday, there will be a European discussion in Brussels about possible measures for companies that are going to be affected by the Russian food boycott. For Dutch export, VNO-NCW-director Hans de Boer warns that the damage could be €1.5 to €2 billion, the NOS reports.
