Hong Kong authorities late on Wednesday captured and euthanized seven wild boars as they began a campaign to reduce their numbers in the territory’s urban areas after one bit a police officer last week.
The boar roundup in a district where authorities said some residents were spotted feeding them marks a policy shift in controlling the animals.
“Veterinarians used dart guns to capture seven wild pigs for humane dispatch through medicine injection,” the Hong Kong Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said in a statement.
Photo: AP
Boars in the residential area less than 30 minutes’ drive from the heart of the financial district were “accustomed to wandering along the road and looking for food from passers-by or even chasing vehicles,” the department said.
Last week, a wild boar knocked down a police officer and bit his leg, causing a deep wound and prompting Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) to warn that the government would increase penalties for those who feed them.
That animal subsequently fell off the edge of a carpark, plunging about 10m to its death.
Photo: AFP
About 30 boar attacks have been reported in the past few years, authorities said.
Hong Kong’s policy had been to capture the animals, then sterilize and relocate them to remote, unpopulated areas.
The shift in policy has sparked criticism from animal rights groups.
Hong Kong Wild Boar Concern Group spokesman Roni Wong (黃豪賢) told reporters that the boar problem was caused by the government, which had failed to allocate resources to deal with the animals peacefully.
“Now the animals have to pay for the cost,” Wong said.
Lam said this week she understood that many Hong Kongers loved wild animals, but “ultimately, our society has to ensure the safety of residents.”
“As a responsible government, we need to take action,” she told reporters at her weekly news conference on Tuesday.
Boars have at times been seen on subway trains, or waiting for the traffic light to turn green at pedestrian crossings by the harbor.
At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, when most Hong Kongers were working from home, a video of a boar family bathing in a fountain in between the financial district’s skyscrapers went viral.
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