The holiday season is a peak travel time not only in the United States, but in several other parts of the world. That includes Hong Kong, where the airport was disrupted Tuesday by an unusual visitor. HPR’s Bill Dorman has more in today’s Asia Minute.
A wild boar made its way into Hong Kong’s international airport Tuesday. All the way out to where aircraft are parked.
Nearly a dozen police officers chased the pig, an adult female about five feet long and weighing more than a hundred pounds—relatively small as some pigs go.
Four of the officers eventually captured it using their plastic riot shields.
A Hong Kong organization called The Wild Boar Concern Group criticized the police response saying the boar was bleeding from its snout. It was taken to an animal care center for treatment and observation.
Wild boars have wandered into other urban scenes in Hong Kong.
They are often tranquilized and returned to the wild.
Last year one boar made its way to a shopping mall, and into a children’s clothing store knocking over mannequins and creating a bit of chaos in the process before it was tranquilized.
There is a split in opinion on how to deal with the boars. Some favor hunting.
But the founder of the Hong Kong Animal Post told the Hong Kong Free Press that “hunting pigs is an outdated custom...that should have no place in today’s Hong Kong.”
Earlier this year, conservationist Alex Hofford told the South China Morning Post that dwindling natural food supplies due to urbanization may be forcing more wild animals into the city in search of food.
