Wild Boars Overrun Berlin

Wall Street Journal:

BERLIN -- Gabriele Klose simply couldn't let the hunter kill the wild boar running around her flower store. Not after it looked up at her with big, innocent eyes.

The hairy beast was one of thousands of wild boars that have discovered the charms of urban living in Germany's leafy capital city. When the creature trotted out of rush-hour traffic one morning last month to root around the flower store, Ms. Klose's first thought was: "That is one ugly dog."

Read the whole story: Wall Street Journal

Comments

[squander123]

09:19 AM on 12/16/2008

Well I'm with the guy who's feeding them (not least because boars and hogs are some of my favourite animals. Smart, socialable and very cute). Yes I know it can cause their numbers to rise, and it changes the human/boar interactio­n dynamics, yada, yada, yada. And yet humans and animals like boar have been interactin­g to mutual benefit for thousands of years. Interactin­g thoughtful­ly and kindly with other species is one of the more attractive qualities of human beings, and god knows we've got enough unattracti­ve qualities.

[marymansour]

10:26 AM on 12/16/2008

Amen.

[ramblingjohnny]

09:11 AM on 12/16/2008

Humnmm... Pork Chops!!!!

[netzwerg]

08:19 AM on 12/16/2008

In my jagd (hunting forrest) here in germany we had Treibjagd (battue) last weekend with over 30 hunters and we only got 14 boars this year. Not much, last year we got 64.
They are all sold and used by local restaurant­s, which provide some of the best food available for expatriate­s like me, including nice Wildbraten for Christmas for the family. ;)