A herd of wild boar have been chased and run over by people driving 4×4 vehicles in an agricultural field in France.
Reports say wild boar populations are steadily increasing and causing real damage in the fields where they trample crops and eat food.
According to the National Wildlife Office, of the between 1.5 and 2 million wild boar, 780,000 were slaughtered in 2019 alone, but it is still not enough to stop the population growing.
The car kill incident took place in Senonges in the department of Vosges in the north-eastern French region of Grand Est.
According to the newspaper Vosges, the herd of wild boars was chased, hit and crushed by one or more vehicles.
Environment officials and members of the Vosges hunting association went to the field to carry out an investigation.
A spokesperson for the association said the wild boars were apparently “chased and run over by 4x4s and finished off with a tractor”.
According to the newspaper Le Progres, the association has already filed a complaint and a police probe is underway.
Netizen ‘Jean Bonno’ commented: “I hope that those responsible for this butchery will be caught, named, and condemned. Although I can understand the anger of some farmers who see their fields ravaged every year.”
Facebook user ‘Jimmy Moreau’ said: “I’d like to see who the association gives the meat to!”
The local hunters’ federations, which are empowered to regulate wild boar populations, are responsible for compensating farmers who are victims of the mammal. The scale is set by prefectural decree.
They paid 60 million euros in 2018 to compensate for the loss of harvests, not forgetting the 20 million allocated to prevention and the installation of fences.
And some hunters’ federations are worried that they will no longer be able to pay from the money they earn from licence fees and kill fees, possibly resulting in illegal kills like the latest attacks with the cars.
A dog sniffs the body of a dead boar Dead body of boars killed deliberately by a car
To find out more about the author, editor or agency that supplied this story – please click below.
Story By: Ernest Bio Bogore, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Newsflash
The Ananova page is created by and dedicated to professional, independent freelance journalists. It is a place for us to showcase our work. When our news is sold to our media partners, we will include the link here.