Sakaseam Sripolreun takes pride in the wild boars he bought three years ago from a poacher in Khon Kaen's Phu Wiang district. Said to be the most beautiful strain in Thailand with a large chest, elegant posture and slim face, they are highly resistant to diseases and can live on scrap fruit and vegetables, making them easy to raise.
Until they run away, that is.
Three years ago, a male boar used its snout to push against the wooden fence that Mr Sakaseam had built as a pen. The fence broke and the boar jumped out. It was found 3km away wandering around another village, apparently looking to mate with a female boar.
Mr Sakaseam has since replaced the wooden fence with a concrete one.
"They jump very high -- up to two metres," said the 57-year-old. "Since they are wild animals, it's their instinct to run away."
Whether they jump over fences or are simply neglected and abandoned by their owners, black boars are increasingly on the run, with the Thai Animal Guardians Association estimating up to 4,000 strays, based on the complaints they receive.
Now that the stray population has grown, government authorities are faced with a practical issue: there is nowhere to keep them, and they don't know what to do with them. "Lately, we've seen dog lovers extending their love towards stray boars by reporting instances of them being killed for meat. Some are even sold for consumption by local administrations," said association secretary-general Roger Lohanan.
REVERTING TO THEIR ROOTS
Originally obtained from the wild, black boars became domesticated and bred for their meat. Not only are they a popular choice at restaurants but they are also sold in markets upcountry at a price of 110 baht per kilogramme, almost double the price of domestic pigs.
Warning: Prapas Pinyocheep. PHOTO: SUPPLIED
There are now 1,558 farmers raising 9,268 wild boars commercially for their meat, according to the Department of Livestock Development. More than 60% are bred in the Northeast, mainly in Loei, Si Sa Ket and Nakhon Ratchasima provinces.
"Wild piglets look nice, but when they grow up they may not be as cute as the owner initially thought they would be," said Prapas Pinyocheep, director of the DLD's Bureau of Disease Control and Veterinary Services.
"Wild boars are naturally aggressive, especially during the mating season, which may be alarming for those who have never raised boars before."
Unlike domestic pigs, which grow one strand of hair out of each pore, a wild boar is hairier, with each pore bearing three strands. They are also much heavier -- a male boar can weigh up to 200kg. Male boars have big tusks, so handlers need to take special care to avoid being injured.
But owners were also faced with another problem: a female boar can give birth to up to a dozen piglets at one time, resulting in a fast growing population.
"What had started from each person raising four to five boars turned into a market oversupply, and eventually they couldn't keep up with the demand," said Mr Roger. "People started to let the boars roam freely and they ended up on the streets."
Thailand's animal cruelty law, which came into effect over the last two years, already prohibits people from abandoning their pets, with violators facing a fine of up to 40,000 baht. But few admit that they are the owners of stray boars.
The Love Wildlife Foundation, which usually deals with slow lorises and other wild animals, recently took in a boar. The sick male was raised by its owner for five years after she rescued it from a slaughterhouse. But the boar burrowed under a fence and escaped, prompting fears it would harm people in the area. After the owner changed the flooring to concrete, the boar developed hip pain and couldn't walk.
Apart from not knowing how to raise boars, owners also abandon their pets, especially when they turn aggressive, said Nancy Lynne Gibson, the foundation's executive director.
"People who pity these animals like to rescue them from being slaughtered, and sometimes they end up abandoning them in temples or other places," said Ms Gibson.
OUT OF CONTROL
Reports of stray boars have appeared frequently in recent years, with boars being found in temples and abandoned housing estates while often roaming the streets in search for food.
Taking pity: Samran Sawasdee taught wild boars to wai with their trotters. PHOTO: Nanchanok Wongsamuth
The DLD says it receives very few complaints about stray boars as they are mostly handled by local administrative officers authorised under the Public Health Act to deal with stray animals in their municipality. The DLD becomes involved when it is requested to help with the capture of stray animals, sometimes with the use of tranquilisers.
"Most of the time, we are unaware [of incidents involving stray boars]," said the DLD's Dr Prapas. "But when we do get involved, we also get caught up in a community conflict where one group considers them [the boars] a burden and the other wants them to stay."
Dr Prapas said the DLD is encouraging all local administrations to enact municipal laws on animal control. In some areas where the law has been enacted, such as Bangkok, owners are required to register their animals, raise them in a contained area and prevent them from "creating a disturbance".
In Soi Ruamsuk in Pathum Thani province, big black boars roam the streets and rummage through garbage bins, making them annoying pests.
No one knows where they came from or how they broke loose, but Samran Sawasdee is among the few who took pity on them when she first saw a pack wandering in front of her house three years ago. "They had such skinny faces and one of them had its nose tied up. That broke my heart," said the 45-year-old factory worker.
Ms Samran started feeding about a dozen boars and gave them names. She says they aren't aggressive and she has even taught some to sit on the ground to perform a wai using their trotters. But the disturbance they caused soon led to complaints by residents, and livestock authorities took six boars away to give to farmers in Nakhon Pathom district. "I went along to send them off. I waited but no one came to pick them up," said Ms Samran. "They ended up at a military camp in Lop Buri province."
The flooding in October left Ms Samran with around 20 adult boars, although officials say there may be close to 100 in the neighbourhood. Over the past three years, Ms Samran has filed a few police complaints against people who have stolen boars, allegedly for consumption. She has turned down several requests by people wanting to buy boars.
Soi Ruamsuk residents filed a second complaint to the local tambon administration, prompting Ms Samran to promise to donate the remaining pigs to Lavo Technology School in Lop Buri province.
"If I don't take them away, the authorities will," she said. "But they don't say where."
READY TO EAT
The Thai Animal Guardians Association has received a steady number of complaints in recent years involving stray boars, mostly from people who didn't want them taken away.
HOME SWEET HOME: More then 20 wild boars lives in Soi Ruamsuk.
This year complaints have risen significantly, indicating the conflict between boar owners and local administrations has intensified, said Mr Roger. Many complaints were related to boars being captured for consumption by locals.
"These people argue that the boars are already free, so we have no right to eat them," Mr Roger said.
But several people also complained about the boars being sold for consumption by local >> >> tambon administrations, a claim which Mr Roger says is also backed by livestock officers he talked to. "Their sole purpose is to bring in money," he said.
In some cases, he said, authorities take ownership of the boars prior to the 30-day period required before claiming ownership of a stray animal.
Last month the association received a complaint from an Ayutthaya local who claimed that tambon administration staff were capturing boars and selling them for meat.
The Ayutthaya livestock office told Spectrum that the boars broke loose following severe flooding in 2011. Some were sent to a military camp in Lop Buri following the complaint, with a dozen left. The official denied authorities had sold the boars.
Public health law gives authority to local administrations to sell the animals provided that they coordinate with the DLD to examine the animals for diseases. "But we don't see that happening," said the DLD's Dr Prapas, referring to the check-ups.
A licence is needed for the selling and transporting of wild boars, which are also required to be killed in a slaughterhouse approved by the DLD. Prior to being slaughtered, they are required to undergo a medical check.
The DLD says eating raw or undercooked wild boar meat can cause a range of diseases such as cysticercosis, Streptococcus suis and trichinosis. Left untreated in human beings, the infections can be fatal.
RESCUE CENTRES
Three years ago, Mr Roger accompanied officers from the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation following a complaint about stray boars roaming an empty construction site in Samut Prakan's Phra Samut Chedi district.
COMMUNICATION: Roger Lohanan. PHOTO: Nanchanok Wongsamuth
The owner started out with two boars but the population quickly grew out of control. Within a few years, she had around 200.
"The DNP denied responsibility for the boars, saying they aren't from the wild," said Mr Roger.
One big question authorities have to face is where to put the stray boars. While there are dozens of animal rescue centres nationwide, most take in only dogs and cats. The Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai and the Wildlife Friends Foundation are the two main centres taking care of wild boars. The latter now has 30 boars after recently releasing 20 back into the wild.
Although the DLD hasn't taken in any stray boars at its quarantine centres, if they were asked to take responsibility for them, they could be raised in the centres for their entire life cycle of not more than seven years, said Dr Prapas.
"It would be a waste of money. They can be eaten, but it's not easy to do anything with them due to protests by animal lovers," he said.
While the law gives authority to local administrations to slaughter the animals, the predicted backlash by animal rights groups is enough to deter officials from doing so.
"The only way to deal with them is to kill them, but they [authorities] don't want to because they will be criticised," said Mr Roger. "I think we need to talk about whether society can accept the killing of these animals when there's no place for them. We need to communicate to the public to make them understand that no matter how much you love animals, sanitary issues come first."
Animal lover: Ms Samran feeds wild boars in Soi Ruamsuk in Pathum Thani so that they won't look for food in garbage bins and disturb the area's residents.
Treatment: A sick boar is taken to the veterinary hospital. PHOTOS: Facebook Thai AGA Fanpage
