The Dutch cabinet will make it easier for local authorities to shoot wolves that have become a threat to people or livestock, junior agriculture minister Silvio Erkens  has announced.

Wolves that have attacked a person, or that have attacked livestock twice within two weeks, will now automatically be designated as “problem wolves” and may be shot.

Authorities will also be permitted to use paintball guns, lights and sound to scare wolves away from schools and built-up areas – methods that have repeatedly been blocked in court.

Erkens told reporters public support for wolves was declining and the issue was becoming polarising. He said the cabinet wanted to prevent serious incidents, citing a case in which a young child had been dragged into the bushes by a wolf.

Wolf attacks

The announcement came shortly after a wolf killed two lambs and injured three sheep in a village near Utrecht.

Some experts have said the new rules are reactive rather than preventive, calling for 10-year area-based permits that would let authorities act immediately when set conditions are met, rather than wait for an attack to take place.

During the previous Schoof government, junior agriculture minister Jean Rumennie tried to introduce a similar definition, but the proposal was struck down.

Last year the EU lowered the wolf’s protection status from “strictly protected” to “protected”, giving member states more leeway to set their own culling rules.

Around 14 packs and more than 100 animals now live in the Netherlands, mainly in Gelderland and the north-east.