Child bitten by wild boar, culling underway on Spargi island

(ANSA) – LA MADDALENA, AUGUST 29 – A team of snipers will go into action tomorrow on the island of Spargi, in the La Maddalena archipelago national park, to cull the wild boar hybrids that live on the islet. The cull was given the green light by an order issued yesterday by the mayor of La Maddalena, Fabio Lai, after a series of episodes in which tourists were attacked by wild boars, the latest of which, a few days ago, was a 9-year-old boy bitten on the beach by an animal. In order to carry out the selective cull of wild boars, the island of Spargi will be practically off limits from 3:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.: it is forbidden to venture onto the paths and it is forbidden for all boats and people to approach the southern coast of the islet by sea. Here, about ten selected hunters (selectors), from 4:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., will position themselves near the beaches waiting for the wild boars to come out into the open in search of food. In recent days, several inspections have been carried out and according to the monitoring and the operators’ findings, of the approximately 80 specimens that populate the island of Spargi, only 4 or 5 are “domesticated” ones that approach people on the beach in search of food, and those should be killed with all precautions so that they do not encounter any agony. According to what was written by Mayor Lai in the ordinance with which he orders the operations of killing the animals, from June to today there have been 5 confirmed cases of people attacked by wild boar hybrids on the islet of the Park. The Park has just today issued an ordinance with which it prohibits feeding the wild boars, as an attempt to reduce “interference between the wild fauna and the users of the Park” and therefore reduce the risk of attacks, often due to incorrect behavior by people. Anyone who violates the ban is punished with an administrative fine of 516 to 2,065 euros. (ANSA).