In Portofino there is a wild boar emergency and to put an end to the problem of ungulates that encroach on urban areas causing damage, accidents, terrorizing inhabitants and tourists, the Park rangers intervene with capture and killing operations.
The Mayor of Portofino, Giorgio D'Alia, yesterday called a meeting during which the timing and methods of the capture and killing operations to be carried out were decided.
The councilors Roberto Viacava and Nicola Gagliardi, respectively, participated in the meeting in the Municipality Tourism delegate and member of the Park Community and Environment delegate and member of the Park Council; also present were the Director of the Park Authority of Portofino, Alberto Girani, the Commander of the Carabinieri Station, Beniamino Migliore, and the Commander of the Local Police, Cesare Vesentini. The representatives of the Region and Province were absent from the meeting, although invited.
Furthermore the three expert park rangers were present at the meeting, Alberto Baldassarre, Gianfranco Repetto and Mauro Focacci considered by the Director of the Park Authority to be true “professionals who, by virtue of the thirty-year experience gained in the field, will physically carry out the operations, conducted in the utmost safety”, underlined Girani.
Mayor D'Alia commented on the decision as follows, "We have decided to intervene on the basis of three elements: the landslide caused by the boars in the municipal area and in the Park, where landslides could lead to heavy hydrogeological consequences; the incursions of ungulates in the inhabited area, with serious risk to public safety and the danger on the roads, for example on the provincial road 227 to Santa Margherita, where stones and dirt can fall when the animals pass in the overlying strips ".
Two specific mailing sites were thus identified, one of which is further away from the built-up area, where they are already feeding, depositing dry bread and corn to attract wild boars, thus pushing them into a "manhole", a mobile cage where the animals will remain trapped, positioned closer to the urban center.
Once trapped, the wild boars will be killed by the park rangers with precision rifles of 30.06 caliber, loaded with lead-free bullets, therefore environmentally friendly as expressly indicated by the Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research. Girani explained “We are not talking about hunting but about selective control. From 5 to 10 animals to be eliminated, included in the 150 of the annual plan ".
The operation will be carried out after sunset when the park rangers, assisted by the police, will go into action using night vision goggles.; posters posted in the city and in the areas concerned will inform inhabitants and tourists while the killed items will be donated to the canteens for the poor.
The Mayor D'Alia also explains, “We are also working on prevention. We have brought together the owners of the land and asked for a systematic cleaning of gardens and strips ”. Furthermore they let the Municipality know that it has been decided to tighten the penalties for those who feed wild boars while five or six floorboards will be positioned inside the park, the so-called “orsogril”, that is walkable grids that will prevent animals from leaving the enclosures.