As Haifa continues to battle with an ever-growing problem of wild boars invading the town, an 11-year-old boy was bitten by a boar on Shabbos as he was playing in a park with friends, Channel 12 News reported.
The boy was taken to the Bnei Tzion Medical Center where he received a rabies shot and antibiotics and was released. However, has to return for a series of rabies shots over the next few weeks.
The hospital explained that the boy tried to feed a boar and was bitten on his fingers when he tried to remove his hand. The child’s mother wrote on social media: “Beware! My son was bitten by a wild boar in the park in the Vardiya neighborhood. Until when will this continue – wild boars roaming around and the municipality does nothing?”
“This isn’t just damage to property anymore, this is physical and psychological damage to a child,” the mother wrote. “I called the municipality hotline and the only thing they did was take my details as if I reported some hazard on the street. Chutzpah!”
And apparently the boy was not the first one to get injured by a boar. Another resident had his leg broken in five places, a recent Yisrael Hayom report said.
“A few months ago, I returned home from work,” Eitan Orliev told Yisrael Hayom. “I got out of the car, walked toward the driveway, heard a noise, and from about 10 meters away, a giant boar began to gallop in my direction.”
The boar rammed Orliev. “My leg was broken in five places. I was on the ground and couldn’t even scream. My wife found me on the ground, passed out.”
“I had to have surgery and pins put in my leg. I was bedbound for three months, then went through months of physical therapy. We had to move to another neighborhood. I had to leave the place where the attack happened because I constantly felt anxious.”
Another incident happened a month ago when a boar rushed at a dog as a teenager was walking it. She called her parents who hurried to the area. As they arrived there, they heard someone blowing a whistle, which is the municipality’s suggestion to frighten away boars.
“And then, the boar ran toward the dog again,” the mother said, explaining that her daughter was traumatized by the incident and couldn’t sleep the entire night afterward, keeping her parents up as well.
The Yisrael Hayom report quoted a Haifa resident who commented on the decision of Haifa Mayor Dr. Einat Kalisch-Rotem to end the culling of the boars that was allowed in the past to keep the population down.
“The city’s argument that the hunting was ineffective is wrong,” the resident said.
“The situation is getting worse every day, and the boars are getting bolder and bolder. It happened the moment the hunting stopped. We’ve been warning the city about it for over a year. Every sow has 12 piglets, twice a year, so a hundred female boars give birth to 2,400 piglets a year.”
“That’s what we’re seeing on the streets now – entire herds.”
Yocheved Levy, a resident of the Upper Hadar neighborhood, told Yisrael Hayom that the boars has negatively affected her quality of life. “They’re always outside my door. If I’m returning home, I can’t go inside. If I’m inside, I can’t leave.”
“I feel like a prisoner in my own home. This is mentally stressful. I’m scared.”
At a Haifa council meeting last week, Yitzchak Balas, a member of the council, said: “We have become the laughingstock of the entire country.”
“Haifa has become known as the ‘pig town.’ Reduce the boar population like we did in the past, or transport them in trucks to the Golan Heights. Anyone who has a problem with this is welcome to [adopt] a boar and raise it in his own home.”
Recently, in Nesher, a city next to Haifa, 11 dead boars were found, apparently a result of a desperate resident poisoning them.
“Poison harms wild animals who eat the flesh [of the carcasses[ and are harmed and die,” warned Israel Parks and Nature Authority. “The main animals that are harmed are vultures, which, as known, are nourished only through carcasses of cows, horses, etc.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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One Response
Even wild animals that destroy propetrty should be destroyed.
Whatever happened to the rights of people to protect their property?
I guess that if farmers find a whole herd of animals destroying their crops they are just supposed to let them?!
This has become ridiculous that people have to fear for their lives and health for animal rights!
Such a stupid, mayor.
They should be shot, not poisoned, and the response of the person in Nesher is out of desperation from a very stupid government, but it is dangerous because who knows who will come in contact with the poison.
If hunting is ineffective (probably not), then they can lace their food with infertility drugs…really do both and get rid of this dangerous and destructive problem.
They can get rid of the disease causing , dirty pigeons, as well!
These invasive animals have doing to do with the natural populations but are a result of man’s interference…time to restore the balance.Even though we are supposed to be kind to animals…people come first, and this has nothing to do with kindness. Overpopulations in urban areas are good for no beings, man or beast.