A HEARTBROKEN Costa del Sol resident has urged local authorities to help after his pregnant horse was mauled to death by a pack of wild boars.
Francisco Tineo, owner of an equine breeding and training centre in Estepona, says his mare died after being attacked – one of many recent incidents as the wild animals increasingly venture closer to urban areas and target pets.
“The wild boars eat all the cats we have here, but until now they had not attacked the horses,” Tineo told Cadena SER.
The incident has even left Tineo and his family feeling scared about leaving their finca.
“They are out there, at the door of the house, and we are already afraid to go out at night,” he said.
“If they have dared to attack a mare, then it is already very serious.”
Tineo has asked the local hunting society to help, but a nearby reed bed makes it hard for experts to capture the boars as ‘they take refuge there and cannot be killed unless they come out into the open’.
He says local officials must do more to hold back the invasion: “Measures must be taken because they are increasingly being seen in the residential areas around Selwo and Seghers.
READ MORE: Wild boars increasingly seen in Spain’s towns – and even shopping centres – carry ‘diarrhoea parasite that can transmit to humans’
“Any day now, they are going to cause a traffic accident or attack someone.”
A spokesperson for the PSOE, Emma Molina, has said the party will present a motion at the next plenary session to demand that Estepona’s council, alongside the Junta, implement an urgent action plan to cull the boars.
Wild boar numbers in Malaga province have risen by an estimated 500% in the last decade – causing road accidents and fuelling complaints from farmers and golf course managers.
Animal rights activists say this is because their natural habitats are increasingly being built and encroached upon by developers.
There are an estimated 22,000 wild boars in Malaga, with over 1.5 million thought to be roaming across Spain as a whole.
Between October 2022 and February 2023, 7,490 boars were hunted and killed in the province – a fivefold rise in just 15 years.
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