The story of how Petrus van der Wolf, a native of the Netherlands, came to the very edge of Russia, was told by a journalist from the OTV TV channel. A huntsman by education first saw the Russian shores 21 years ago. And it so happened that it was on Sakhalin that the man found his calling.
Together with his wife, hydrobiologist Lysa, he once worked for the Sakhalin Energy oil and gas company, and before that the couple had worked in five countries around the world. Then they were invited to Sakhalin to take part in a project to save the gray whale population from possible contamination of an oil production platform. After all, it is near where the feeding grounds of the sea giants are located..
Petrus' knowledge and skills were used more than once. When the tanker Nadezhda ran aground in 2015 and tons of fuel oil consumed almost three kilometers of coastline, seabirds had to be rescued as well. Petrus' family alone took about 300 birds to clean them of fuel oil. Then there were orcas caught in nets and stranded, and even three white-tailed eagles, which Petrus helped to nurse and return to the wild.
Peter is a versatile man, as an artist he has worked as an illustrator for many years and has even been a journalist. He also learned Russian. With his own hands he built a large stable on Sakhalin, which in the neighborhood became known as a hospice for horses. After all, Peter literally pulled them out of the dead. He rescues horses from negligent owners and gets them out of zoos and circuses.
“In 2005, friends gave me a small piece of land where I built a 10-denier stable. Then we rebuilt it on another site. And that's where I adopt horses from friends. I once took a horse from the wild, which was very sick. We have wild horses in the Kholmsky district, and sometimes they suffer a lot because of the snowfall. I found one when it got pneumonia, and I took it for myself. Then I took a horse from a circus that came to Sakhalin. The horse could not stand up, there were problems with his spine, I spent two years restoring him,” Petrus Van der Wolf told the story of his pets.
Now the islanders leave their favorites with Peter to stay, and he, in turn, takes money only for feed and to pay his assistant for work. Besides horses, Peter has 12 other dogs, for which he also made a mini-shelter, as well as rabbits.
"Why did I stay in Russia? After the start of the special military operation, the company where I worked stopped being in Russia and they all left," Petrus continues. - But I can't leave my horses, with whom I have lived for almost 20 years. I live here now and I will live here."
A Dutchman with a Russian soul – that's what the locals say about Petrus van der Wolff. Now he plans to apply for Russian citizenship and open an animal rehabilitation center on Sakhalin.
Photos from Petrus van der Wolf's personal archive.