Pregnant Pigs Released In The Forest Of Dean

This is for all those interested in the free living pigs that are being released in the UK.

I'm reading between the lines here. That's why it's a Skunk Works thread.

It looks as though regular releases of small groups of young pregnant sows are topping up the pig population in the Forest Of Dean. This rapidly increases the numbers. The cull and other factors then drive the pigs further afield. When their presence is noted they're baited onto a compliant farmers land and hobby hunters pay to shoot them.

The forest is being used as a breeding ground for shooting stock. The anti-hunting activists are being tricked into helping the arrangement by making the cull as chaotic as possible. The purpose of the cull is not to kill the animals, but to drive them out onto private farmland.

These aren't British pigs but this video shows where they get their fighting ability. Many hunters like the element of danger presented by a pig at the end of a gun.

I expect a biker will be killed or seriously injured after hitting a pig while travelling on a road through the forest. We need to turn the spotlight on those selling 'boar' shooting to hobby shooters so we can hold them to account for the consequences of deliberately stocking the Forest of Dean with pigs.

There are several wild boar populations in England. Places like the Forest of Dean are ideal habitats I would have thought. Pigs are quite good for the environment. In the New Forest pigs are released in Autumn to get fat on all the acorns and fruit in a practice called pannage. I have no doubt that the New Forest could sustain a good population of boars.

Shooting boar for sport would not go down too well, so doubt that would happen. Shooting them because they are a nuisance is possible, but then that's mankind's way.

a reply to: paraphi

Pigs are good for the environment in small numbers. The numbers don't stay small, that's the problem.

Here's a typical sport shooting offer.

£150 + £50 food and accommodation per hunter. Shot fee: £50 for any female / juvenile male.
Tusked boar: £20 per cm measured on the largest exposed tusk. As 60% of the tusk is buried in the jaw, a Bronze medal pig would only show 6cm of chargeable tusk. Venison remains property of the estate but may be purchased at prevailing dealer rate.

www.thestalkingdirectory.co.uk... The boar can be purchased at market value, around £300.

And here's a video on UK boar shooting.

There are thousands of feral and wild boar roaming the British countryside's darker woods, and shooting them has become an established sport.

You can thank Chernobyl for the pig release. Oh you think I might
Be a bit crazy for that statement?

Do a Goole search for "Radioactive boar". Radioactive wild boar
Have been turning up in Germany, France, Italy, etc. . They have
stopped hunting in quite a few areas.

Mmmm radioactive bacon.