Italian farmers took to the street in
front of parliament and across the country Thursday to protest
what they say is an "invasion" by wild boars into farmland and
cities all over Italy.
Farm group Coldiretti said that during the COVID year the number
of wild boar straying onto farms and roving the outskirts of
Italian cities had risen by 15% to a record total of 2.3 million
animals.
Coldiretti published what it called a "tragic" toll of one
incident caused by the boar every 48 hours in a year of COVID.
There have been 16 victims of wild boar incidents in the past
year, and 215 people injured, Coldiretti said.
The number of car crashes cause by animals on Italian provincial
roads has risen by 81% over the past 10 years, the farmers
association said.
Farmers, animal breeders and shepherds from all over Italy
gathered in all of Italy's 20 regional capitals starting in Rome
where they rallied outside the parliament building,
Montecitorio.
They said they want to "stop a calamity that destroys crops,
attacks animals, besieges stables and causes road accidents,
with concrete dangers for farmers and citizens".
A group of young farmers dressed up in boar costumes stopped MPs
and explained to them the "emergency situation" they have to
face each day.
Other farmers brought fruit, salad ingredients and cereal crops
that had been completely destroyed by boar.
The protesters also held up life-size cut-outs of boar to show
politicians how scary an encounter with the animals can be.
They also waved banners reading "After COVID, the plague of
boar", "We sow, the boar reap", "Let's defend our land" and
"Town and country united against wild boar".
Many city mayors came to Montecitorio, as well as ordinary
citizens worried about what they called "a full-blown
emergency".
photo: Banner reads "We sow, the boar reap"
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