Friday 6 January 2006

Wild Boar in Devon


Just before Christmas, just as I was about to go out to work I heard an item at the end of the news report on Radio Devon. It said," 100 wild boar have been released by Animal Rights Activists from a farm in North Devon." It would seem that keeping wild boar upset some one who went down to the farm and cut the fence and let them out. Click for full story
Now, over 2 weeks later there are still 60 of the boar still running round free and there numbers could start to grow as wild boar in Devon do what wild boar any where do. Yesterday there was a massive hunt for these animals by over 100 people but only one was captured.
Now there have been sighting as far away as Plymouth and it could be months or even years before all these animals are accounted for. Meanwhile farmers are having their field ripped up by the boar and gardens are being destroyed as the boar go about looking for something to eat.
The Animal Liberation Front said it was responsible for freeing the animals but I think it was the local Tourist Board looking for a new, major wild life attraction for Devon. It used to be just Big Cats wandering round Dartmoor, now we have wild boar as well.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

A stray kitten I took in a few months ago has turned into a large-sized monster (I live in Spain, so it's unlikely to be one of your Bodmin offspring). It doesn't meow like an ordinary cat, either. Interestingly, I was thinking about the big cats in the west country not that long ago. I see that the BBC story you link to is 2003. Do you have any more recent info?

David said...

Sorry snoop, I did try and find some links that were a bit more recent than 2003. It would appear that the big cats have become extint in the UK which is probably why the Devon Tourist Board let the Wild Boar out. If you go onto the BBC site and log on to Science and Nature you will find an iten about cats there.
busdriver