Wild Boar on the Loose in Hadano
I don't know which wild animals are scarier - bears or boars. In Japan both are pretty scary.
Last week in Kanagawa Prefecture, a wild boar came down from the mountain forest into the town of Hadano. First, it was seen at the entrance of the Aeon shopping center, where it knocked an 83 year old woman to the ground and she suffered injuries to her head. After that, the creature ran about 200 meters down the street, attacking a young man who was left with wounds to his left leg.
Next, the boar was seen running around the athletic field at Suehiro Elementary School, which is about 400 meters from the shopping center. The city animal control workers arrived at the school and tried to incapacitate the animal using a prod that delivers electric shocks. That did nothing, as the boar, estimated to be 120 centimeters long and 80 kilograms in weight, charged at the animal control employees. At that time, Masahiro Iwata, the deputy chief of the Agricultural Promotion Division of Hadano, stabbed the wild boar with a spear that had a 150 centimeter shaft and 24 centimeter bladed head. That was it for the boar, Mr. Iwata killed it. Luckily no children were in danger or saw the animal being killed, as they were all inside the school at the time.
I'm not in favor of killing animals, but I'm less in favor of animals killing people. Boars or bears or other wildlife are sometimes killed in Japan in order to protect people, but using the old fashioned spear is very unusual.
2 comments:
Every day in nature lives are lost because one creature kills another. It is a natural circle to keep some kind of balance. The eagles eat rabbits. Snakes eat frogs. Wolves eat sheep... We have taken the land and feeding grounds of many animals so they come and destroy our crops.
I might be childish and naive, but I think that mountaineers who harvest wild plants like baby bamboo shoots have only themselves to blame if they are attacked by bears (whose food those bamboo shoots are). After all, we can get food at any supermarket or order it online, but bears do not have such an elaborate shopping system in place.
On the other hand, I am fully aware that if wild animals are let loose to scavenger farms there will be no vegs to be had from supermarkets or online stores.
That wild boar would be scary to meet anywhere!
Wow, that surely was a scary encounter! I think we should leave wild animals alone whenever possible, but when a boar wanders into town, that's no longer an option. The spear might be an unusual choice of weapon in our time, but it's also kind of cool!
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