In Rome, a small family of wild boars that had strayed into a public area was killed amid protests from citizens and animal rights activists. Was it really necessary?
In Rome, a small family of wild boars that had entered a metropolitan area was slaughtered despite protests from citizens who tried, in vain, to stop the killing. The wild boars – a mother and her six young – had taken refuge in a small park near some residential buildings in a part of Rome – via Gregorio VII, and we are not talking about an outlying suburban area, but a busy residential street – attracted by piles of rubbish left unattended. A phenomenon that has now become a habit in the capital, burdened by waste disposal services that do not work and are constantly breaking down.
The mother had even built a shelter for herself and her cubs in an isolated corner of the area, she was friendly, and both she and the piglets were even taking food from the hands of the many children who had adopted the family members as playmates. Of course, they should not have been feeding them, and the wild boars, friendly or otherwise, should have been moved and relocated to a protected area. And that is exactly what the local residents were hoping would happen. Instead, in the night of 16 October, tragedy struck. The vets from the provincial police, in a scene worthy of a horror film, first sedated the animals and then finished them off, amid screaming, threats from animal rights activists and the tears of the children present.
Was it necessary? Was it inevitable? No, at least according to the animal rights organisations that had taken charge of the problem (from Michela Brambilla to Lav and Enpa, to name just a few) and had guaranteed the authorities that the wild boars would be transferred and taken to a safe place. And that is what everyone present had believed, deceived by the sedation of the mother and cubs before the brutal conclusion of the story. But can Italy's wild boar invasion be stopped without bloodshed? And what can be done to prevent these episodes from recurring, while respecting our animal friends and the difficult coexistence we must establish with them? Let us take a step back…
In our country, native wild boars live only in Sardinia, while elsewhere in Italy they are the descendants of animals introduced from eastern European countries after the war, or produced through hybridisation caused by interbreeding with pigs left to free-range. And it is precisely these wild boars – larger, more voracious and more prolific – that constitute today's problem, not least because, in search of food, they tend to enter towns and cities attracted by the rubbish that local authorities – as in Rome – fail to remove promptly from the streets.
The hybridised wild boars living on the Italian peninsula are much larger than the native ones – adult males can weigh as much as 100 kilos (compared with 50 kilos for the Maremma variety) – and their coat is lighter in colour. The females come into heat up to twice a year and give birth to large litters. Hybridised wild boars are decidedly voracious and, once they have finished feeding on berries and roots, they turn their attention to cereal crops, potatoes, onions and lentils, and are not averse to orchards either, causing serious damage and costs to agriculture. The problem, therefore, is not confined to the metropolitan areas they stray into, but affects rural areas above all, where crops and livestock have to endure their incursions.
It is worth noting that in Italy there are also numerous wild boar farms used primarily for hunting restocking and food purposes. One practice that should be banned outright is the baiting and constant provision of food laid out to attract wild boars so that they can be hunted and killed. All of this disrupts the natural balance and endangers the entire ecosystem.
In the wild, wild boars can live up to 25 years across large expanses of woodland interspersed with clearings, where small ditches form and fill with rainwater. They conceal themselves well in dense vegetation; their eyesight is poor, but their sense of smell and hearing are highly developed. Sounders are made up of females, cubs and young males, while adult males live alone or in bachelor groups, approaching the sounder only during the mating season. Groups therefore constitute an extended female-led family, in which the females guard the cubs and defend them courageously from predators, becoming highly aggressive if disturbed. And that is the only circumstance in which these animals can pose a danger, since, their size aside, they are generally shy and wary.
In response to the Rome tragedy, Oipa, in a statement, warned against feeding wild boars – and wild animals in general – that have strayed into urban areas in search of food. Proper waste disposal therefore becomes, as in the case of bears, wolves or foxes, one of the primary ways to avoid issues of this kind. In the face of the rise in wild boar numbers, the solution loudly called for is the culling of the animals. But it is precisely hunting that is the main cause of the problem, since it is established that where there is intensive hunting activity the number of wild boars increases exponentially. Why? The answer is simple: hunters cause social disruption within sounders, leading to the dispersal of individuals and encouraging younger females to reproduce outside their original group.
"The most ethical solution, albeit a complex one, is to trial demographic control using immunocontraceptive vaccines. And it was precisely in Rome that, two years ago, the Environment Department had begun to sketch out a pharmacological sterilisation project. To solve the problem at its root, and avoid the repetition of distressing scenes like the one in Rome, it is necessary to act on the birth rate of wild animals rather than on their mortality rate. The modern approach is therefore to harness the immune response of the animal's body to block fertility through various means. For this reason, immunocontraceptive vaccines are used in some countries today," explains Edgar Meyer, president of Gaia animali & ambiente. Following the administration of a vaccine of this type, the subject's immune system is stimulated to produce antibodies against reproductive hormones. A single dose causes infertility in the animal for a period of at least 3–5 years after administration.
Beyond that, the practice of fencing cultivated fields is of little use because wild boars manage to dig holes and enter the protected area. Far more effective, though costly, is electric fencing, which keeps them away from cultivated fields and orchards without difficulty. Olfactory or acoustic deterrents have also proved ineffective, yielding discouraging results, because the wild boar, being a highly intelligent animal, eventually sees through the trick and behaves accordingly.
A source of hope for containing and controlling the wild boar population comes instead from the reintroduction across Italy of the ultimate apex predator: the wolf. It is wolves that are the most important natural antagonists of wild boars, and their predation could represent the most effective system for keeping the population of these ungulates in check, leaving the ecosystem and its laws intact and preserving its delicate mechanisms of biodiversity. But all of this depends, as ever, on a proper understanding of nature and its rules — something that human beings currently seem increasingly unable to achieve.
