A female boar was on Thursday night spotted stuck in a fence railing in Fortress Hill, bleeding and struggling. Although it was later rescued and sent to a farm for treatment, it is assumed that it will be euthanized due to the severe injury it sustained.
The boar, weighing about 50kg and measuring about a meter in length, was discovered by citizens on Tin Hau Temple Road outside Coral Court at around 11pm last night. Its neck was stuck between the railings of a barrier fence, and although it kept struggling, it failed to free itself.
The boar suspectedly got frightened, ran head-on into the fence, and became stuck as it was roaming the slope looking for food.
Pools of blood could be seen on the ground as it kept sliding its body back and forth against the metal fence, injuring itself.
Police arrived after receiving the report and cordoned off the area. Firefighters and officers from the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department were also mobilized to the scene.
The operation to free the animal continued until midnight, but the boar remained stuck, and staffers from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) were then called in to help.
A vet and a nurse from the SPCA, guarded by officers carrying shields, approached the boar and injected it with a tranquilizer to calm it down. Firefighters then widened with tools the gap where the boar got stuck and freed it.
The boar was then lifted into a vehicle and sent to an SPCA clinic. After primary examination, the vet found the boar sustained significant injury to its hind legs, and there were scratches on its belly and bruise marks on the left-hand side of its head. Its mouth was also bleeding, and it was missing a few teeth.
Later, the boar was sent to Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden in Tai Po for further examination and treatment.
The farm said the boar had lost too much blood, and its bones could be seen through the open wounds, adding that it was almost dead when it arrived at the farm. As it is unlikely that the boar will fully recover, it is assumed that it will be put down.
