A walk in the park with a wild boar. Photo: Shutterstock
Over 20 animal associations and groups have submitted a letter to Malaga City Council rejecting their plan for a wild boar cull.
The animal rights associations and groups have submitted a letter to Malaga City Council, arguing that the Council s intention to cull wild boars with crossbows is unjustified and will cause unethical and unnecessary suffering.
The letter came in response to a plan announced by Malaga city council in May to set aside €15,000 to pay professional hunters to cull wild boars that have wandered out of their natural habitat and into into Malaga s suburbs. The local authority had claimed that they had received a number of complaints from local residents about the animals which had been spotted following common mating routes down streams and rivers, but not stopping at the city s boundaries.
Groups reject the proposals
The associations rebutted that there was no societal panic about the increased sightings of boar in urban areas, nor that the animals are dangerous per se, and went on to emphasise that no one had been attacked by the animals.
Rejecting the proposal to cull these wild creatures, the group said the cull would not only kill individual boars indiscriminately but could also cause unnecessary suffering by fatally wounding them. They also make the argument that the use of bows and crossbows near urbanised areas poses a significant risk to public safety, with potential collateral damage to neighbours in the area. In addition, they say that the current measure of limiting boar populations with archers would backfire, creating a situation potentially more harmful and unsustainable in provoking the boar population into becoming aggressive towards humans.
Alternative measures
The group proposes in the letter that alternative measures such as immunocontraception, relocation, better habitat and resource management, and public education should be implemented without causing any suffering to animals or endangering the population.
According to data from the Hunting Resources Research Institute, there are currently an estimated one million wild boars in Spain, a number experts say could double by 2025.
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