YoI’ve always found Godwin’s law (if discussions go on too long, call Hitler or the Nazis) to be incredible. I don’t see myself suddenly bringing World War II into a long discussion about hedgehog mating. Then give me Ephi’s law, which is much more realistic: when discussions become contaminated with emotions and polarization, facts and reality are replaced by opinions and beliefs. The discussion then becomes an ideological battlefield with no alternative but to be for or against.
In April I wrote a column about the wolf. It was more of a story to put that beast into historical perspective. My God, I didn’t realize that I had inadvertently entered a very dangerous minefield. The next day a reader’s letter blew up in my face: I was accused of “blaming and cringe of a native species with very old rights.’ Good heavens, but I have nothing against this predator! I am neutral, so neither for nor against its presence in the Dutch tundra.
Better yet, we are sitting in our new Italian home among the wolves that populate the surrounding hills. Mrs. Ephi has not stopped talking about it since she saw one. It walked gracefully down the middle of the street past the house. Big, stately, and with that wobbly gait characteristic of wolves, she said. When she excitedly reported this to the neighbor, he shrugged: “So what?”
This does not alter the fact that I must conclude from my neutral chair that the discussion about Mr. canis lupus has gone astray. Totally ideologized by two sides that can drink each other’s blood. My fellow columnists take a decidedly pro-wolf position in this regard.
Here are some examples. ‘The excitement about the wolf is typically Dutch. The Dutch are afraid of the few forests that remain.” (Max Pam, of Volkskrant). “The Netherlands are not too small for wolves, at most too narrow-minded.” (Koos Dijksterhuis, Fidelity). “The wolf is the best thing that has happened to the Netherlands in years.” (Jarl van der Ploeg, of Volkskrant). “The calm tone of the Italians contrasts with the hysterical way in which we approach our cucumber wolf.” (Jerry Goossens, ADVERTISEMENT). “The danger is not the wolf, but the man.” (Eva Meijer, NRC)
Well, columnists, it seems, like to dance with the wolf and that is their right. Although in some people, as a human being, it can feel a bit self-loathing.
But what I miss in all these articles are concrete facts and figures. From my still impartial position, I would like to do something about it and de-ideologize the debate. Long live the wolf… In the first three months, 267 wolf attacks on animals were detected, in the same period of 2023 there were 77. That is, more than three times as many. This is due to the growing wolf population:
“A year and a half ago we counted 29 wolves, last winter there were 51,” says a spokeswoman for Bij12 FidelityAccording to researchers at Wageningen University, in the near future we could count up to 56 packs (up to five hundred wolves) in the forests. The Netherlands has a population density of 529 inhabitants per square kilometre of land. Long live the wolf, of course, but in moderation.
The columnist broadcasts twice a week. Sylvain Ephimenco his views on current events. Read his columns here.
