A man in his 70s was moderately injured in a wild boar attack Sunday night in the northern city of Haifa.
Magen David Adom ambulance service medics provided the man with medical treatment and took him to the city's Rambam Hospital in stable condition, suffering from injuries to his limbs and head. The hospital said the man broke one of his shins.
Group of wild boar roaming through the streets of Haifa's Vardia neighborhood on Yom Kippur
(Photo: Anat Livne)
"The wounded man was lying conscious on the sidewalk. He said that while he was walking his dog, he was attacked by a wild boar and got injured," the first responders told Ynet.
"We provided him with medical treatment, which included splitting and the administration of painkillers, and transported him in moderate condition for further treatment at the hospital."
Boars, a species of wild pig found across Europe, Asia and North Africa, can grow up to two meters (more than six feet) in length, although most are smaller.
Seeing a lone boar strutting along the streets of Haifa used to be a rare sight, but today these roaming rogues have become a common and growing problem.
According to locals, herds of wild boar can often be seen roaming the city’s streets, wreaking havoc and destroying property, and in some rare cases like Sunday's incident, even turning hostile and attacking people.
Unlike her predecessors who chose to cull the boar population through hunting, Haifa’s current mayor Einat Kalisch-Rotem decided to solve the problem with non-lethal means. She has opted to deny the pigs any sources of food and water in the city, such as reinforcing trash cans to prevent the animals from reaching the discarded food inside.
These measures have not found favor with some local officials who say they are useless.