Wild boar with broken leg put down after found hiding in Mid-Levels parking lot

A female wild boar is spotted trying to get away from police, shortly after it was found hiding in a parking lot with a broken hind leg. Screengrab via Apple Daily video.
A female wild boar is spotted trying to get away from police, shortly after it was found hiding in a parking lot with a broken hind leg. Screengrab via Apple Daily video.

With wild boar encounters continuing to tick upward, we can no doubt expect more sad scenes like the one that unfolded yesterday in a Mid-Levels car park, where police were forced to trap and put down a female boar discovered with a broken hind leg.

Police received the call at about 10am, with someone reporting that a wild boar was hiding behind one of the cars in the parking lot of the Richmond Court housing estate, according to Apple Daily.

Officers arrived shortly afterwards, where they found the boar lying on her side with one of her hind legs bleeding.

Within an hour, personnel from the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) were on the scene and attempting to catch the boar, which police believe was likely struck by a car, with nets.

Video published by on.cc — which some readers (OK, and editors) may find upsetting — shows the moment the wild boar pathetically attempts to flee police and AFCD personnel, dragging her useless right hind leg behind her.

She was eventually caught and taken to AFCD headquarters for examination, but had to be put down after vets found that her right hind leg had been severely fractured.

It’s not entirely clear how the boar ended up in the car park, but given Richmond Court’s proximity to The Peak and the fact that its car park is situated next to a slope, on.cc surmised the animal likely rolled down the slope after being struck by a vehicle on the road above.

The news comes just a week after another female wild boar died after being found along a roadside in Cheung Sha Wan, unable to stand.

That boar died hours later after being taken in by vets at the AFCD, who found that she had sustained a pelvic injury following a collision with a vehicle.

Human-boar interactions have been on the rise, with more sightings and complaints reported last year than in the three previous years combined. As boars increasingly find their way into urban areas, the issue has become a hot topic among officials, some of whom have suggested novel, and largely unworkable plans for containing the boar population.

Under Section 56 of the Road Traffic Ordinance, a driver must stop their vehicle when they have been involved in an accident that has harmed an animal and report the incident to police as soon as possible. Failure to do so can earn the driver a HK$10,000 (about US$1,280) fine and up to 12 months in jail.

However, the ordinance somewhat bizarrely applies only to domesticated horses, cattle, asses, mules, sheep, pigs, and goats. It does not include wild boars or, for that matter, cats and dogs.

HKFP reported last April that the government is proposing changes to extend the legislation to cats and dogs, but there appear to be no plans to include wild boars under the ordinance.




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