The Coldiretti alarm
With almost an accident every two days in Italy, the invasion of wild animals such as wild boars in cities and countryside has caused more than 200 deaths and injuries on the roads in a year, as well as damage to crops and health risks for farms. This is what emerges from the elaboration of Coldiretti on Asaps data on the occasion of the summit in Rome a Rospigliosi Palace between the president of Coldiretti Ettore Prandini, the minister of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty Francesco Lollobrigida, the president of Federparchi Giampiero Sammuri, the president of Fondazione Una Maurizio Zipponi, and the president of the Agrivenatoria Biodiversitalia association Niccolò Sacchetti, to address one of the worst threats to household security, ecosystems, biodiversity and national food sovereignty.
Ease of movement
A situation worsened by the drought which - explains Coldiretti - dries up the crops and dries up the streams, pushing the herds ever more towards urban centers and coasts in search of food and water. Moreover, the low levels of rivers allow animals to cross them more easily, increasing the possibility of moving from one area to another, so much so that wild boars are capable of traveling up to 40 kilometers at a time. The herds - Coldiretti underlines - are moving ever closer to homes and schools, up to parks, destroying crops, attacking animals, besieging stables, causing road accidents with deaths and injuries and scratching through waste with obvious health risks. With the presence of 2,3 million wild boars estimated by Coldiretti throughout the national territory, the situation is now unsustainable in cities and countryside with incalculable damage to agricultural production but - continues Coldiretti - but also to the environmental balance of vast territorial ecosystems in of naturalistic value with the loss of both animal and vegetable biodiversity without forgetting the risks for farms and the Made in Italy at the table with the spread of the African plague.
A threat to the population
Almost seven out of ten Italians (69%) - according to the Coldiretti / Ixè survey - believe that wild boars are too numerous while there is even 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 those interviewed think. The vast majority of accidents - explains Coldiretti - occur during the day, in 90% of cases on state, provincial and municipal roads and 8 out of 10 crashes involve cars. But the problem also concerns the city streets with wild boars which - Coldiretti highlights - push themselves into urban areas in search of food among mothers with strollers, children going to school or kindergarten and commuter cars going to work as it also happens in the capital of Italy which has become somewhat of a symbol of this invasion. "The majority of Italians consider the excessive presence of wild animals a real national emergency that affects people's safety as well as the economy and work, especially in the most disadvantaged areas" denounces the president of Coldiretti Ettore Prandini in underlining the 'need "for targeted and large-scale interventions to reduce the threat of wild boars nationwide". The killings of wild boars - explains Coldiretti - occur almost entirely (94%) in public areas and the rest in private hunting reserves and for the most part (60%) they are large animals, according to the latest data Ispra relating to the period 2015-2021.
The use of killing
The invasion of streets and squares by wild animals is experienced by citizens as a real emergency, so much so that over eight Italians out of 10 (81%) - according to the Coldiretti/Ixè survey - think that it should be tackled with the use of killings, above all by appointing specialized personnel to reduce their number also because one Italian adult out of four (26%) has come face to face with these animals. If in the cities many inhabitants are forced to live in fear - concludes Coldiretti -, in the countryside the presence of wild boars has already caused the abandonment of 800 thousand hectares of fertile land which today, in addition to no longer being productive, is exposed to erosion and to hydrogeological instability (Source COLDIRETTI).