The provincial authority in Brabant has agreed to sanction wild boar hunts using beaters, which is currently banned.

Roaming wild boar are said to be the cause of traffic accidents, damage to crops and, according to pig farmers in in the province, the animals carry and spread diseases.

Brabant has a strict zero boar policy but, according to one local mayor, this is ‘a utopia’. The hunt will have to change that to a ‘zero damage policy’, he said.

‘I’m not saying that this type of hunting will be allowed in each and every case,’ mayor of Heeze-Leende Paul Verhoeven told the online news platform Monitor. Verhoeven is a member of the the so-called boar table’ at which the local council, agriculture organisation ZLTO and nature organisations have a seat.

The use of beaters to drive the animals into the direction of the hunters is allowed in the Netherlands if the province grants a licence but using dogs and noise is banned by law.

The pro-animal Partij voor de Dieren has already voiced its objections. PvdD council member Paranka Surminki has criticised the introduction of beaters and claims that there is no proof that killing boar will lead to fewer accidents.

There are better ways of keeping boar away from crops than giving in to the interests of the Brabant hunting lobby, she said in an opinion piece in the Eindhovens Dagblad.

Cull

The culling of animals is controversial in the Netherlands. Scenes this winter of dying deer, horses and cows in the Oostvaardersplassen after hundreds of animals had already been culled sparked nationwide protests.

This led to a decision by the provincial council of Flevoland last week to limit the number of deer, horses and cows to 1,100 in the reserve instead. The cows and horses may be housed elsewhere but over 1,000 deer will be shot.

At the same time, the province has agreed to open up the area more to tourism.