Police and hunters have started a special operation to catch "hardened wolves" from the Chernobyl exclusion zone that attacked villages in the Gomel region of Belarus.
Although the wolves didn't injure any people, they did attack dogs and livestock, Interfax reported Thursday.
"A hardened wolf is the most dangerous type," said Anastasia Abashina, chief veterinary officer for the Braginsky district. "In the last several days they killed 20 dogs, five calves, a pig, 15 rabbits and 15 hens in the village of Krasnoye," she said, adding that if a wolf was caught, its brains will be send for a rabies check.
She also said that areas where the wolves have left their mark will be sprayed with a special anti-rabies agent.
More than 60 heads of cattle were killed by wolves in the Braginsky district, which borders the Chernobyl exclusion zone, in the last 11 months, Abashina said. She added that several years ago a wolf attacked a human but there has been no repeat since then.
According to statistics for 2012, there are about 1,530 wolves in Belarus.
The exclusion zone, which has a 30 kilometer radius and extends into southeastern Belarus, was set up after the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster in Ukraine in 1986.
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