It is estimated that there are around 2.3 million wild boars in Italy, which are causing more and more accidents on the roads. According to the Coldiretti farmers’ association, this caused accidents every 41 hours last year alone, with a total of 13 dead and 261 seriously injured. A situation that requires an immediate solution for the president of Coldiretti, Ettore Prandini. In and around Rome, among other places, wild boar is a growing problem.
There, the animals have multiplied a lot in recent years and are increasingly penetrating inhabited areas in search of food, where they feed on the street garbage. They are said to have repeatedly attacked people in recent months. Meanwhile, even-toed ungulates have also become a problem in other parts of Italy. For Prandini, the situation in the cities and in the countryside is unacceptable. The economic damage to agricultural production is great.
“We have a problem”
The permission to shoot animals in urban centers is based on an amendment to the budget law passed by the Chamber of Deputies in Rome on Wednesday night. Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida welcomed the decision: “It’s not about hunting, we’re dealing with a problem,” he said.
Portal/Max Rossi Soon no longer just in the bush, but also on city streets
“We spend a lot of money just on the consequences of traffic accidents caused by fauna. Farmers stop production because their fields are being ravaged by an unreasonable number of animals. It can’t go on like this,” said Lollobrigida. The law still needs to be approved by the Italian Senate on Friday.
“Safari and BBQ”
“In a few weeks, a new figure will appear in our cities: the urban hunter,” says a column in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica. This is not to be confused with the rural hunter, who lies in wait for his prey in the bush at dawn and has to observe closed periods for hunting.
“Urban hunting is always open,” writes La Repubblica. You can shoot around the clock at any time of the year. The new law also allows “hunting” with dogs. Urban hunting is more comparable to a safari. In any case, city dwellers should be careful when leaving the house so as not to bump into anyone with a loaded gun.
The most important innovation to allow wild boar hunting in urban areas is that the slaughtered animals can also be eaten. However, before being released for consumption, they must be submitted to hygienic-sanitary tests. Then everyone is free to roast, steam or grill the wild boar meat. And you can even find a place on the menus of the city’s restaurants.
Animal rights activists protest
Animal rights activists protested the decision by the Chamber of Deputies and described it as unacceptable. In recent years, hundreds of thousands of people have planned to expand their hunting grounds and kill them in various Italian regions – and this has regularly caused violent protests.
According to animal rights activists, there are other ways to control the situation – for example, with drugs that affect the fertility of animals. Or you just have to limit more sections of the road with anti-boar fences or nets and give wild animals the opportunity to cross roads with overpasses or underpasses.
man made problem
The fact that wild boars multiply so quickly in Italy is obviously due to the lack of natural predators. It is likely that the problem has another cause, also man-made. In the 1990s, hunters brought animals from Hungary and other Eastern European countries to Italy. These were bigger and stronger than the Italian wild boar – and more fertile.
A survey carried out by Coldiretti shows that 81% of Italians think that the wild boar problem must be tackled by slaughtering it, employing specialized personnel to reduce the numbers. 69% consider wild boars to be too numerous, 58% consider them a threat. Concerns are also accompanied by the occurrence of several cases of swine fever.