Wild Boar Culling Continues

A baby wild boar rummaging through garbage for food

It is disturbing to find the Hong Kong government still insists on culling wild boars in "black spots" that show no fear and pose a risk to humans.

The head of the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said on Sunday that it has "humanely handled" 28 animals since the policy was introduced last month to euthanise problem boars.

"We have captured and humanely handled boars in five out of more than 60 black spots," Leung Siu-fai said on Sunday.

AFCD should advise how to deal with wild boars

The "capture and kill" policy for wild boars sparked an outcry from animal activists, calling on the government to reverse its strategy and instead step up its neutering program. They believe only a small fraction of boars have been neutered.

Yet Leung said the department would continue its operations at black spots.

"We will continue our strategy to protect the public's safety. That means we will continue to capture boars which appear regularly, are not afraid of people, and even pose a safety risk at black spots," he said.

"We will also, if there are referral cases, report on boars going to urban areas, and we will assess if they pose a risk, and if they do, we will also capture and remove them."

How will the officials be able to identify those that wander into urban areas more often than others? Do they have them all tracked? And where are these "black spots"? How about telling the public where they are so that they are more cautious next time?

Activists condemn capturing and killing boars

Leung also said there would be more efforts made to dissuade people from feeding boars and improve the design of garbage bins.

How about launching a large-scale education campaign on why people should not feed wild boars, and what they should do if they encounter these animals. The AFCD should also continue to neuter ones they capture to control the population.

The AFCD did a study two years ago and estimated there were from 1,800 to 3,300 wild boars in the countryside areas. According to a spokesman, the animals are naturally wary of humans, so it is rare they will attack people.

Why is the government so insistent on killing these animals when it is humans that are encroaching on their environment?

Anger Grows at Govt's Culling of Seven Wild Boars

A hungry wild boar taking advantage of someone's picnic

The anger at how the Hong Kong government is dealing with the issue of wild boars encroaching into urban areas continues to simmer, with some 350 people in the veterinary sector signing a petition.

They are urging the authorities to stop the capture-and-kill strategy for wild boars and return to the original plan of neutering them so that they cannot reproduce.

Seven wild boars were killed last week

People who signed the petition included practicing vets, nurses and veterinary students.

One of the students who initiated the petition said overseas studies show contraception is the most effective way to reduce the wild boar population in the long term, so the government should not suspend the scheme after contraceptives were only used on about 300 wild pigs.

Another student said they learned about animal welfare and ethics in school, and believe they have a duty to speak up for wild animals in Hong Kong against the "unfair" strategy.

"Only a small number of wild boars have hurt people. And why did they do so? It's because humans invaded their habitats. They have no other options than to come into the city to search for food," she said in a radio show.

"It's not the wild boars' fault that they appear in the city. We should not kill them, but should step up education so people will not feed or get too close to them," she added.

Many roam in the urban areas in search of food

Indeed. Many Hongkongers feel the seven wild boars that were killed last week were innocent victims and should not be first of all lured with food -- which is against the authorities' advice -- and then killing them.

How about stepping up education around not feeding the boars and really fining or punishing people for giving them food? If police can constantly stop people from gathering in more than groups of four, surely they can patrol well known areas where wild boars are found and catch people who are feeding them...

Gov't Defends Culling Wild Boars

The wild boars were lured down with bread by the authorities

Animal rights groups are up in arms after the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department captured and killed seven wild boars in Wong Chuk Hang.

In plain sight of the media, the AFCD lured the wild pigs with bread -- which the government has repeatedly told the public not to feed them -- and then tranquilized them with dart guns.

Seven wild boars were culled 

It seems the AFCD is now taking drastic action after a wild boar knocked down an auxiliary policeman before biting him in the leg and then the animal plunged 10 stories to its death in a residential car park in Tin Hau last Wednesday.

There had been numerous complaints from the public for the authorities to do something about the wild boars, capture them and take them to remote areas, instead of ignoring the problem and worse having ignorant people feeding the animals as if they were pets. The number of sightings involving wild boars rose from 225 in 2011 to 1,002 last year.

When criticized for using food to lure the wild boars down, Simon Chan Kin-fung, the department's assistant director for conservation said on a radio show: "Even if we did not use food to attract them down from the hill yesterday, they would still come [to urban areas]."

Perhaps what made the optics even worse was that several of the boars had young ones with them when they were "compassionately" put down.

Police officer bit in leg by boar

"Some other parts of the world have been using the hunting method. We are using a very humane way to put down the wild boars, with dart guns and medicine injection. We will continue to use food to capture the wild boars in the city area," Chan said.

Last week the department announced that wild boars in urban areas would be "regularly captured for humane dispatch with a view to reducing their number and nuisance"... in other words cull them.

The previous strategy was to capture them, neuter them so they would not be able to breed and then relocate them to a remote area. 

About 20 staff were involved in capturing and euthanising the seven animals, which weighed between 50k to 170kg.

Chan said the department only targeted wild pigs that were frequently found in urban areas, not the ones in rural places.

However, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals condemned the AFCD for its actions, accusing officials of ignoring suggestions on how to manage the problem.

"The SPCA reiterates that a non-lethal approach to wildlife management is always preferred, and is against the idea of hunting boars, as this has proved to be problematic on several fronts," it said.

The boars had young ones with them last night

Roni Wong Ho-yin, a Hong Kong Wild Boar Concern Group committee member who witnessed the operation, described the use of food to capture the animals as "despicable and bloody".

He said the bait could attract animals that humans were not regularly feeding.

"The department has been educating people not to feed the wild boars," he said. "But they are doing something self-contradictory. This could change the behaviour of some wild boars which are not used to being fed by humans."

Others felt the public must be educated not to feed the animals because it gives them an unnatural food source that encourages them to reproduce. 

So if they are, then it seems they are reproducing at a much faster rate than the AFCD can neuter them, or the authorities are not capturing enough of them to really make an impact on the population numbers.

An artistic impression of the wild boar cull...

In any event, while there was a lot of outrage online, one artist took to his blank page and created a riff off of artist Wang Xingwei's riff off of the Tiananmen Square massacre picture of people riding bicycles and taking two penguins that were shot in the chest.

Instead a Hong Kong artist showed boars riding a bicycle with a wooden board behind, carrying another wounded boar, one in the foreground wearing a yellow helmet and tears dripping from its eye.

Even wild pigs have feelings too...

Wild Boars in the City

One of the wild boars wandering around Hong Kong Park...

When you're walking the streets of Hong Kong, beware of wild boars!

Last week there were two boars incidents above Admiralty, with one wandering outside the Conrad Hong Kong before disappearing into the trees, and the other spotted two days later nearby in Hong Kong Park. That one was tranquilized and returned to the wild.

.... another was scampering around the Conrad Hong Kong

These wild boars have also been seen in shopping malls, housing estates and theme parks across Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories.

"They're very funny animals.... whenever there is change, they just don't want to be there," says Dr Gary Ades, head of fauna conservation at the Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden near Taipo.

"They create these beautiful animal highways in the dirt, which they use to get around, but the moment a new tree is planted nearby there is confusion."

Some theories as to why they are wandering closer to urban areas could be because people are feeding them, which is illegal, or the drier winters make it harder for pigs to unearth worms that they feed on.

A boar trapped in a children's clothing store in a mall last May

Whenever there are rainstorms, the wild boars have an increased risk of falling into storm drains, and may end up out on the coast.

Ades says with more rural development, there is a higher chance of conflicts between boars and humans.

So if you see a wild boar running around your neighbourhood, don't feed it, but report it to the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (call 1823) so that they can hopefully contain the situation as soon as possible.

They're not too dangerous, but they are wild animals...