Hunting and Fauna: Genoa, wild boar emergency in the city, the animals arrive too close to the houses; the Province runs for cover and while organizing catches with cages warns "Do not feed the wild boars".
Information campaign by the Province of Genoa to deal with the wild boar emergency that is now invading urban centers: “Don't feed the wild boars”, fines of up to 256 euros for those who are caught feeding the wild boars; in the meantime, special cages have been placed for the capture of ungulates. “The Ordinance n.52 of 2000 prohibits the administration throughout the municipal territory of food of any kind, including waste from private and public kitchens, to wild boars. Citizens are invited to collaborate, non-compliance is punished with fines of up to € 256,94 and a complaint ". To stop the invasion of wild boars and raise awareness among citizens not to feed them as if they were pets, the Province decides to print 500 flyers to be distributed mainly to Righi, Castelletto, Oregina, Manin, Lagaccio, Quezzi, where there are greater sightings of ungulates. It is now normal to see them running around in via Chiodo, via della Cella, via Cabella, via Carso, via Napoli. “It seems to us a good way to tackle the problem - explains the extraordinary commissioner of the Province, Piero Fossati - and to make people understand that these animals wandering around the streets cause accidents, can be aggressive and create sanitation problems. Too many feed them, without realizing the damage they cause. They are getting used to human beings and the risk is to find them even more under the house as if they were cats ".
In addition to going door to door remembering the ban, a selection campaign and capture with large cages will start. "Twenty have already been ordered, fourteen have been delivered to Pieve, Bogliasco, Sori, Recco, where an analysis tells us that they are in greater numbers, while in Genoa one is already ready in via Viazzi, in Quezzi". The reason why wild boars approach inhabited centers is simple: there are few chestnuts, the food they are fond of. “The chestnut has disappeared due to the spread of the Galligenous Cynipid, a parasite that came from the East - explains Chief Commissioner Eraldo Minetti of the provincial police. To the east there are many abandoned olive trees and then they manage to feed themselves ".
In November, hundreds of them descend from Piedmont in search of food. “With the first periods of hunting, the wild boar, which is an intelligent, eclectic and opportunistic animal because it manages to change its lifestyle as only mice can do, moves quickly and decides to enter the city - Minetti goes on -. The theory is overturned, because in the inhabited centers instead of olives and chestnuts, they find garbage and the people who feed them ”. Genoa with its woods so close, lends itself easily to boarding. For this reason the province has built a sort of Hadrian's Wall to keep them away.
“It is a 2 and a half kilometer fence that goes from San Pantaleo to Mura degli Archi, let's say from the“ Richetto ”tavern. Together with the seventeenth-century walls, we can say that from above Staglieno covers 4 kilometers up to Castagna ”. An effective defense system, if it weren't for the fact that some "friend of the wild boars" knocked it down. "This doesn't just happen with fences, there are other acts of boycotts, because they blow up traps or free animals from cages." Ungulates were found above the Carmine market, from the Cavoglio barracks to the Lagaccio. "There are people who give them croquettes, they cannot imagine what difficulties we had in the past in getting them evacuated from the San Martino hospital, where a colony had formed". Another problem not to be underestimated in addition to that of who gives them to eat and who leaves the garbage around, are the catteries.
“For wild boars they are like olfactory beacons - explains the chief commissioner, they feel the food and move towards the bins, even managing to drop them to empty them. Then the foragers come into play and then when the wild boars start roaming the gardens, we have a problem ”. For this it is necessary to proceed with the jokes.
“We catch them with nets or cages and then we kill them because it is unthinkable to move them. as then the problem would only be moved to another municipality. It must be borne in mind that a female gives birth to three puppies in the first birth, but six more are born in the second in the same year ... firecrackers ".
24 October 2013