To cope with the increasing nuisance, the Agriculture, Fisheries & Conservation Department announced that from today, wild pigs in the urban area will be regularly captured for humane dispatch.

The department explained that under the new strategy, on the premise of safeguarding public safety, it will capture wild pigs appearing in urban areas for humane dispatch every month by using dart guns with anaesthetics.

Priority will be given to sites with large numbers of wild pigs, and those with past injury cases or with wild pigs which may pose risks to the public.

The department launched the Capture & Contraception/Relocation Programme in late 2017 and adopted a multipronged approach to strengthen the management of wild pigs in 2019. However, wild pigs continued to gather and look for food in some urban locations, causing serious nuisance. Accustomed to wandering in busy urban areas or roads, these animals bring potential danger to citizens and road users.

As the disturbance is largely caused by intentional feeding, the department said it is exploring amendments to the Wild Animals Protection Ordinance, including expanding the feeding ban area for wild animals and stepping up control of feeding activities to minimise the pull factor drawing wild pigs to urban areas.

To urge the public not to feed wild pigs, publicity and public education will also be offered, the department said.

Calling on the public not to feed wild pigs under any circumstances, the department stressed that wild pigs are not pets but are potentially dangerous large wild animals. Feeding will attract them to visit or even gather in urban areas, posing danger to the feeder and other citizens, as well as causing nuisance to daily lives.

In recent years, the number of injury cases caused by wild pigs is on the rise, the department noted.

There were 36 injury cases caused by wild pigs from November 2011 to October 2021, of which 30 cases occurred between 2018 and 2021. During the same 10-year period, there was only one injury case per year on average for the first seven years, but 10 injury cases per year on average in the past three years.