Nico Verkroost accidentally killed a wolf on the A67 near Aalst on Sunday evening. He is affected by the accident. “It’s a shame, it really is a rare animal.”
The blow came unexpectedly. Nico just looked at his navigation. On the way home, on the A67 to Venlo. “My bus came all the way up. A Volkswagen T5, a van that you can’t just get off the ground.”
Tens of meters away Nico stops and runs back via the hard shoulder. Another motorist sees him, stops too and together they investigate. A little further on, a bloody trail wryly marks the site of the accident. “We saw him lying on the roadway, exactly where the highway makes a kink. Because it was a dangerous situation, the two of us quickly pulled the dead animal onto the verge.”
–
Nico is under the impression that it is a fox. It’s dark, blood pressure still high, trucks roar past. After a few attempts, he gets on the phone with the local animal ambulance. He reports a collision with a fox.
Shortly afterwards Nico continues on his way. These are very busy times for him. The working day was long. “I have a demolition and DIY company and just came back from a customer. When I got home, the driver who helped me sent me some photos. Only then did it become clear that it was a wolf.”
–
Looking back, Nico experiences the blow for the umpteenth time. It happened in a split second. “It is intense. I can still see him lying. Whether I ran over him or hit him will always remain a mystery. But the wolf was still warm when we dragged him to the side. The photos I was horrific, with open stomach, guts and all.”
–
The Venlo resident especially remembers the size of the hit wolf. “I have a pit bull XL myself, it’s big. But this wolf was huge. Just absurd.” Fortunately, there was no personal injury for him. Only the wheels of his bus ‘chatter’ a bit. But the damage runs deeper. “It’s powerlessness. Something like this happens to you. I find it very sad to see such a beautiful, beautiful animal lying dead on the side of the road.”
ALSO READ: Wolf killed on A67 near Aalst
– .
