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Just released! - the 'official' England and Wales Best Practice Guide for shooting wild boar |
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| Shooting as a method of controlling wild boar | Wild boar and gun laws | Large wild boar in Britain | Code of practice |
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Code of Practice
To effectively and humanely control wild boar populations by shooting, a Code of Practice should be an essential first step. Wild boar have been absent from Britain for several hundred years, and as such there is an understandable lack of experience amongst the general shooting fraternity about the most effective, safe, and humane methods available to cleanly kill a wild boar. Therefore, a Code of Practice is needed to provide guidance to newcomers, and to refresh those with experience, on methods of best-practice regarding wild boar control in Britain. A Code of Practice would also, for example, help to balance issues of population management, stock-preservation, agricultural damage reduction, field-dressing hygiene, disease awareness, public safety, etc.
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For example, currently there is no closed season to protect sows with dependent young from being shot, potentially leaving the piglets the unpleasant fate of starving to death. To make population management more publicly acceptable, perhaps the need for a closed season is paramount? Even Defra have stated "There are also clear welfare grounds for restricting the culling of sows during the main farrowing period."(Paragraph 8.17, page 32), Feral Wild Boar in England: Status, impact and management. A Report on behalf of Defra European Wildlife Division, and Defra further add "Consideration should be given to introducing a close season for sows from 1 March to 31 August."(Paragraph 8.19, page 33, same report). By coincidence, the photo on the right was taken in the Forest of Dean in the same week the ranger was conducting his vigil in the hide. Legally, the sow and her piglets can all be shot, or just the sow, or just the piglets, because there is no closed season to prevent this. But are the people calling for a closed season being overly-sentimental, considering the damage wild boar can do to agricultural crops, or is a closed season necessary to preserve stocks thus ensuring sufficient animals survive into until the following year, even it is only to be shot at again? |
(photo: Kateontheradio) |
Interestingly, the Forestry Commission have stated that there is no need for a close season in the Forest of Dean because the wild boar there breed all year round. However, although it is true that the wild boar can breed all year round, the vast majority of Dean piglets are born in the spring/early summer months. In the East Sussex wild boar population the farrowing period has been narrowed down even further, by academic research, to between April and July (page 11) The Ecology and Management of Wild boar in southern England .
Therefore, will a close season be incorporated in a Code of Practice, and is a Code of Practice actually on its way? Well, yes it is - allegedly. Defra's 'Wild Boar Action' plan, published in February 2008, stated under the heading 'Ensuring High Quality Advice' that "the Defra family in partnership with the Deer Initiative will coordinate a range of authoritative advice regarding feral wild boar" which will include:
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• Guidance on best practice and safe shooting. • Guidance on carcass handling including meat for human consumption and waste disposal. • Advice to aid hunters, gamekeepers and stalkers in disease identification. • Advice on dealing with wounded wild boar. |
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This will all be excellent and much needed advice - when it eventually arrives. The Wild Boar Action Plan was published on 19th February 2008, and over two years later, we still wait for the advice. It appears that the Defra family are on a long vacation. Perhaps it's time for a more proactive organisation to take the initiative - any suggestions?
... and we must never forget the importance of a clean kill as a wounded wild boar can be extremely dangerous to both the hunter and any passing innocent member of the public. As the photo below proves, wild boar are being shot with weapons of inadequate calibre because carcasses skinned prior to butchering have been found with lead pellets embedded from a previous shooting. This practice should obviously be strictly discouraged.
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Wild boar being prepared for the table, showing where it
has been shot before in the neck area 