On the morning September 28th, citizens of a city just north of Seoul were shocked to see a wild boar rampaging through the streets. Police were able to shoot and kill the boar, but not before it had attacked and injured five people, two of them seriously. Wild boars can sometimes be seen deep in the mountains of South Korea, however it is rare for them to come into cities.
Article from SBS:
Wild boar rampages in Pocheon, five residents injured
[transcript of news report]
Announcer: Police have shot and killed a wild boar that entered the city of Pocheon and went on a rampage. The boar had attacked and injured five people within the city. Reporter Park Won-kyeong is on the scene.
Reporter: A dark object crosses the street and chases after a woman.
It then reappears on a nearby street, where it hits the side of a military vehicle before running up an alleyway.
Korean soldier, running out of a vehicle: “You’ve got to get it, this is serious!”
These images of a wild boar were taken around 10:00 a.m. on September 28th in the city of Pocheon.
The boar was one and a half meters long, weighed 100kg, and was estimated to be two years old.
The boar is suspected to have come from one of the nearby hills before it spent roughly one hour swaggering around the city and walking through the streets.
Witness Lee Kil-soon: “I came out when I heard a woman scream, then I saw the boar, it was a big one. I was too afraid to come out and just stood here, shocked.”
The boar, which was first discovered near Pocheon City Hall, strutted around the center of city, attacking pedestrians.
Two residents, one in her seventies and one in her eighties, were rushed to a hospital. Three other residents are receiving treatment for bruises sustained during the attacks.
Victim: “the boar hit me in the calves and knocked me over, then it bit my rear end, then it stomped on my head. It all happened so fast.”
Police fired ten shots to kill the boar.
A man stands with the body of the boar that rampaged through Pocheon.
Lieutenant Lee Ho-joon of the Pocheon Police Department: “After three police officers saw the boar running through a thicket toward the city, they fired upon the animal.”
Police believe that the animal had been looking for something to eat when it lost its way and ended up in the middle of the city.
Comments from Daum:
앵벌이상파:
Please stop going to the mountains and collecting all the acorns and berries! People need to come to their senses and stop gobbling up everything that animals need to eat. Think about what you’re doing, obliterating everything that the animals of the forest need to survive! I was watching a hiking program where this big time hiker was acting like he knew everything and picking whatever he wanted to eat, these people have no right to be in the mountains.
mimi:
The boar probably just came to the city because he was hungry, but if the only way he could eat also involved harming humans, then there was no choice but to shoot him!
인샬라:
Don’t just write these articles all the time, do something about the problem! Is the only answer to kill them… please do something to help animals and people live together…
투표시간연장:
And a chicken from the Yushin era is rampaging in the Blue House…fifty million Koreans have gone crazy
김온유님:
It could have been much worse..I hope the injured people get better soon. There was nothing they could do but shoot the animal, but I do feel pity for the boar.
기탄잘리:
Please stop picking all the nuts and acorns in the woods…
rlaalsdnd:
Wild pigs need to eat acorns and kudzu in order to survive, but now people just take what they want, saying “who cares about pigs eating acorns?” The Korean half-moon bear eats acorns. It’s because of this that salamanders have disappeared from the valleys, and now they are catching the frogs…
ckddml:
When it comes to dangerous animals like wild pigs, it would be better for humans and for the animals if they moved all of the animals to conservation areas where they would be protected. When I am deep in the mountains, in areas where there is no mobile phone signal, thinking about what would happen if a wild boar suddenly appears makes me carry around a heavy rock for protection. Deer and wild pigs in those areas eat all of the farmers’ crops and ruin their livelihood. It’s not even safe for farmers to work in their fields alone. But then animal rights activists charge in from the cities with their romantic ideas about animals. It would be much better to research putting bears, wild pigs, deer, and other such animals in a big conservation area so they could be used for tourism, which would limit the dangers to both man and animals.
동쟁이:
They must have had a party with all of that pork after they caught it.
시어버터:
Did they have to kill it? They could have used a tranquilizer gun and brought it back to the mountains. Do only humans have the right to live? Every life is precious!
도솔21:
The pigs are just coming to civilized areas because humans have indiscriminately destroyed everything there is to eat in the pigs’ habitat…so the only way to solve a problem created by human mistakes is to shoot the pig…
꾸꾸:
Is it a crime for a pig to be hungry? The crime happens when humans destroy everything in nature that wild animals need to survive. tsk tsk
A December 2009 photo shows South Korean soldiers feeding bread to wild piglets.
청청달마:
RIP wild pig
kerkerkack:
This reminds me of an old episode of 동물농장 when a dog saved his owner by fighting with a wild boar but died during the fight. The owner climbed a tree and took pictures with his cell phone.
웅스:
To all you shitheads trying to protect wild pigs, I think you need to get your intestines ripped out with a wild boar tusk in order to come to your senses. Stop self-righteously talking about damage to the environment and demanding that humans take responsibility. Have the guts to get rid of something that is harmful to humans. If at the very least you ride around in a car that burns gas, spoon your rice into plastic containers, and enjoy disposable conveniences, then you should know that all your complaining about protecting the environment is just the hollow whining of a keyboard warrior trying to act better than other people.
째기오:
A raccoon came down from Bonghwa Village, acting smart and deceiving everyone, I would have liked to shoot that raccoon. [this is a metaphor for former President Roh Moo-hyun]
돈자:
The boar should have tried rampaging around the Blue House or the National Assembly
