Wild boar emergency, Coldiretti: 2.3 million head in the cities, one accident every 48 hours

• On the cycle path with wild boars in Rome

• Novara, car hits wild boars on the highway: two dead and one injured

• Herd of wild boars on the motorway, serious accident on the A1: one dead and 10 injured

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08 July 2021 An accident every 48 hours with 16 victims and 215 injured is the toll of the invasion of wild boars in the year of Covid.

This is what emerges from Coldiretti's analysis of Asaps data, on the occasion of the protest of farmers, citizens and institutions throughout Italy starting from Piazza Montecitorio in Rome with mobilizations in the main cities.

A Coldiretti delegation had the opportunity to bring the reasons for their discomfort to Prime Minister Mario Draghi for a discussion on the wild boar emergency.

The numbers of the emergency

In Italy they have reached the record figure of 2.3 million copies. The situation is evident in the cities and has become unsustainable in the countryside with damage for at least 200 million euros per year to agricultural production, but the environmental balance of vast territorial ecosystems in areas of naturalistic value is also compromised with the loss of biodiversity both animal than vegetable. He supports Coldiretti.

In the last ten years the number of serious accidents with deaths and injuries caused by animals (aci istat data) has almost doubled (+ 81%) on provincial roads; a real emergency that puts the safety of motorists at risk on the almost 850 thousand kilometers of Italian roads and motorways, with wild boars that can reach 1.5 quintals, 1.2 meters high and 2 meters long.   

The commitment of the Minister of Agriculture

"It is clear that this situation can no longer continue and therefore I can assure you of my maximum personal commitment to give answers that all of you are entitled to have from the State". This was said by the Minister of Agricultural Policies, Stefano Patuanelli from the stage set up in Piazza Montecitorio in front of a thousand Coldiretti farmers who came to Rome against the invasion of wild boars.

"Wildlife is the property of the state and the state cannot cause damage to citizens with its property", said the minister and added "there must be no damage and the state and the regions must do their part" .

The Coldiretti survey

More than one in four Italian adults (26%) has encountered a wild boar live. This is what emerges from the investigation into the wild boar emergency in Italy, presented on the occasion of the blitz in Piazza Montecitorio and in the main Italian cities by Coldiretti.

Over eight out of 10 Italians (81%) think that it should be faced with the use of abatements, especially by hiring specialized personnel to reduce the number according to the Coldiretti / Ixè survey. An alarm shared by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) which has launched an appeal to the states of the European Union asking for extraordinary measures to avoid wild boar access to food and to reduce the number of animals to limit the risk spread of diseases such as African swine fever (psa).

According to the Coldiretti / Ixè survey, wildlife represents a problem for the vast majority of citizens (90%). Above all, the excessive presence of wild boars is targeted, which 69% of Italians believe to be too numerous while there is even a 58% who consider them a real threat to the population, as well as a serious problem for crops and for environmental balance as 75% of the interviewees who have formed an opinion think.

The result is that more than six out of 10 Italians (62%) have a real fear of it and almost half (48%) would not even take a home in an area infested with wild boars. When asked who should solve the problem, one in 2 Italians (53%) believe that it is up to the Regions, while for 25% it is the Government's task and 22% is up to the Municipalities.

Salvini: "Let's kill the wild boars, it's in their interest"

"Killing wild boars is in the interest of the wild boars themselves." Matteo Salvini participates in the Coldiretti garrison in front of Montecitorio. "I love animals, but if I want to keep an animal at home I choose the dog, the cat or the goldfish. I don't want the wild boar in the bedroom, nor in the fields of those who work. Overpopulation is a risk. for some species, a balance must be guaranteed because otherwise there is a lack of food, space and greenery. Ensuring a balance of fauna is absolutely fundamental ".

Lav: "The protest demonstrates the futility of hunting"

"Coldiretti took to the streets this morning to demonstrate 'against wild boars' to which the farmers' association attributes any problem, from the' extermination of crops' to 'health dangers', with accusations that sound like an exaggerated distortion of reality" and without "the slightest hint of the causes". It can be read in a note from the Lav.

"In fact, the management of wild animal populations, including wild boars, has always been entrusted to hunters and the lead of their guns. And the damage to agriculture attributed to wild boars has always continued to grow, although since 2005 they can be hunted 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Despite, therefore, a frenzied hunting regime, according to Coldiretti's accusations, the wild boars are not only not decreasing in number, but are even growing continuously ".

"Hunting has proven to be a total failure! It causes the death of millions of animals every year and alters the balance of the species, thus leading to the numerical expansion of wild boars, also following the widespread introduction of animals from Eastern Europe, operated by hunters in the past years to have more animals, more prolific and bigger at their disposal. A change of course is therefore necessary to direct the management of coexistence between wild animals and the human activities that take place on their territories along scientific lines ".

Massimo Vitturi, manager of the Wild Animals Area, says this.