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On Thursday morning, in the mountains of Kanagawa Prefecture, a wild boar came down from the forest into the town of Hadano. The creature began to run amok, charging at the townspeople and causing injuries.
The male boar appeared at one of the entrances to the Aeon Hadano shopping center, where it charged at an 83-year-old woman who suffered injuries to her head from falling to the ground as she tried to dodge the attack. The boar then made its way about 200 meters down the street, where it attacked a man in his 30s, leaving him with wounds to his left leg.
The boar was next seen running around the athletic field of Suehiro Elementary School, roughly 400 meters away from the shopping center. It was still there when city animal control employees arrived on the scene, and they first attempted to incapacitate the boar using a prod that delivers electric shocks.
This had little effect, though, as the boar, estimated at 120 centimeters long and 80 kilograms in weight, brushed the apparatus back and charged multiple times at the animal control staff. It was then that Masahiro Iwata, deputy chief of Hadano’s Agricultural Promotion Division, stabbed the boar with a spear with a 150-centimeter shaft and 24-centimter bladed head, killing it.
▼ Iwata displays both the two-pronged electric prod and the spear that were used.
▼ The spearhead appears to be matagi nagasa, a type of traditional hunting knife originally used in the northeastern Tohoku region for hunting large game such as bears, attached to a pole.
Luckily, the school’s children were all inside at the time, sparing them both from risk of injury and the trauma of seeing a wild animal being killed with a melee weapon. Boars and other potentially dangerous wildlife being put down in the interest of protecting human residents isn’t unusual in Japan, but animal control/hunters usually use rifles, not spears, and online commenters were surprised to see that the Hadano apparently keeps such old-school weaponry on hand.
“Never would have thought there’s a modern-day city with its own spear, or that they’d actually end up using it.”
“So they have a city employee who can kill a boar with a spear. Is he a samurai?”
“Guy is like an RPG protagonist.”
“Apparently there are warriors mixed in with the city officials.”
“Whoa, Hadano is hardcore.”
The city hasn’t issued any statement about why a spear was used instead of a rifle, but the incident taking place on school grounds, and a subsequent desire to eliminate any chance of a stray shot hitting a building with children inside, may have been a factor.
The boar’s body was transported to a local facility that specializes in the cleaning of wild game, and its meat will be supplied to nearby restaurants. It’s too bad, though, that the city and the animal couldn’t have just talked things out, though, like the police officer and wild boar did in Nagoya recently.
Sources: Tele Asa, NHK News Web, YouTube/ANNnewsCH, Twitter
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-- 6 people bitten by wild boar in Tokyo
-- Japanese citrus farmers deal with crop-stealing wild boars by killing them, selling their meat
-- Wild boars leap from river, run across rice fields like a scene from a Ghibli anime film【Video】
- External Link
- https://soranews24.com/2022/11/26/city-employee-in-japan-kills-wild-boar-with-spear-on-elementary-school-grounds/
31 Comments
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Jay
People injured by a panicked, distressed wild boar? A reasonable response would be to tranquilize and relocate it. A third-world immoral response would be for some pencil-neck from city hall to maximize its suffering by slashing at it with a sharp blade.
The character of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated. This just shows how behind Japan is in its moral progress.
kurisupisu
It’s sad to hear that instead of tranquilisation and netting being used that the only recourse was to have stabbed the animal to death?
Mark
Bet they enjoyed it in a nabe later too!
Newgirlintown
People in Japan seem to have a funny attitude towards animal rights.
Dirk T
Years ago in Iwaki-shi, Fukushima-ken a thin, elderly lion that was part of a sad Russian circus escaped from its cage and made its way to a sunny ledge nearby. An elderly man out for his early morning walk first saw the beast snoozing in the sunshine and soon a helicopter was buzzing in the sky and the local police were warning all citizens to stay inside and lock their doors. A little later a group of local hunters was recruited and en masse they blasted the lion off its perch and into oblivion while TV cameras captured the dramatic incident. By the end of the day, every person in Japan seemed to know about the dangerous lion and the courageous men who saved the lives of potential victims of this ferocious predator. In fact, I got phone calls from people all over Japan checking on me to see if I was safe in Iwaki.
The lion never moved off its ledge.
Yubaru
Let me guess, you are vegan. This is a wild animal, and often times they need to be culled, because they come into areas where people are living and cause damage and sometimes injury and death.
No one, that matters anyway, is going to "judge" Japan or these people for their actions.
Armchair quarterbacks, after the fact, can say what ever they want, but it's nonsense.
JeffLee
When I hike in natural areas, I always take along an aluminum walking stick with a sharp pointed end to fend off an angry bear or other dangerous animal.
Aly Rustom
at least it wasn't just culled. Love whole boar roasted on a spit. Absolutely delicious!
The story about the elderly lion is very sad though.
Jay
Great, the assumption game. I wonder how many we could make about you? I'm not vegan and that shouldn't have anything to do with this cyclical response to dealing with animal encroachment from a so-called developed nation that needs to hold itself to a higher standard.
I agree there are certain animals that need to be culled, which is why I support sustainable hunting in places like Hokkaido where the overpopulation of yezo sika deer can have devastating consequences on ecological structure.
So they need to be stabbed to death because they should know better? Spoiler alert: they don't, hence the argument for tranquilization and relocation like any modern, morally developed nation does.
Yubaru
Right, arm chair quarterback. You know all the details and the situation that allows you to judge the treatment of the animal.
Even if it was "relocated" odds are it would return to the same area. It was a threat, and to disable to imobilize any threat, you use what you have at hand.
I suppose you would wait for tranq-gun and in the meantime some ES kid gets gored.
Dude deserves a medal for fast thinking and more importantly taking action to prevent others from getting injured or possibly worse.
You also conveniently overlooked that other methods did not work on the animal. But then to acknowledge it would defeat the purpose of your agenda here.
gaijintraveller
Was the boar really killed at the school or was it killed in a slaughterhouse? I thought in Japan animals had to be killed in a slaughterhouse if they are going to be sold as meat. Many hunters just kill animals such as boar for a bounty they receive from the local government. The meat is then either eaten by the hunter, given or thrown away, and probably thrown away.
MichiTokyo
Yes, sure, why did they not sing the cute piggy to sleep and then carry it veeeeerrryyy carefully to a new home.
Perhaps with other new piggy play buddies so she has a UN charter protected new ground.
Because as UNWBPA stipulates
No wild boar ever must be killed.
If found in inappropriate locations, humans around them need to be relocated.
Every wild boar has the right of at least one mate per square kilometers.....
Gaijinjland
So life locked up in captivity, pumped full of hormones and ultimate death at a slaughterhouse is more humane? Tranquilizers don’t always work and I really doubt using a rifle would have lessened the animal’s suffering unless someone on the team was a sharpshooter. And using a rifle on school grounds seems more risk than it’s worth. They made the right call.
Sanjinosebleed
Using a rifle anywhere in a public space is fraught with danger especially a school! This guy was a champ! It is not as if the boar was going to sit still for them to hit it while it is on a rampage. Sad for the boar but probably the best outcome.
Jay
Are you living in a bubble? Visit any regional festival or amusement park and laugh and applaud like the locals at the monkey with a leash around its neck being forced to jump through hoops. Drop in to your local dog run during the middle of summer and fawn over how cute the dogs are in their fashionable hats and pet jackets as they hyperventilate in their unnatural garb. Go to Taiji during their dolphin drives and watch how they're slaughtered. Or join the whalers in harpooing whales and, as they slowly bleed to death, justifying it because "Japanese culture."
Add to this their outdated methods of dealing with animal enroachment and yes, Japan as a society in general are cruel to animals, whether they intend to be or not.
TokyoLiving
It was a dangerous condition, they could have put him to sleep with a dart rifle, I don't know..
Anyway, poor animal..
browny1
2 wild boar have been captured and killed in the treed area across from my house in the last 3 years.
Different to the article as in both cases they were trapped ( a kind of leg noose ) , but they were dispensed of in the same manner with I guess the same weapon as reported above.
I witnessed both times because I went outside to see what all the noise was about. A professional hunter was involved and the carcass was loaded into his refrigerated K-truck.
The boars were swiftly killed with a stab and cut action to the throat.
What I didn't really like was the people gathering around to watch the spectacle and kids being allowed to pose for photos with the "spear" aimed at the dead boar.
Lord of the Flies came to mind.
The number of boars in my area has increased dramatically over the past decade with many warning signs around.
A bit worrying.
shogun36
Give the brutha a bonus. He earned it that day.
WA4TKG
Wild bore and dangerous and lethal.
If that’s all he had to kill it with, so be it.
Otherwise you would be writing / complaining that a kid was killed and no one did anything about it.
wallace
School gates locked. School doors locked. Call a vet with a tranquilizing gun or a local hunter with a rifle. Kobe is another city with large wild boars coming from the mountains. I was charged by one. Fearful.
John-San
At 9:27 am Iwata San thrusted forward with a 25cm steel hunting blade, deep into the right lower side of the chest cavity severing the heart in two allowing for a very quick death. What a noble way to die for a beast of nature. Thank you Iwata san for protecting the children and the public from certain danger and for taking on the burden of guilt associated with preforming such an act of killing in the defence of the public safety . Thank you.
Zizi
Well that was a dignified end for the boar.....
What a horrible way to deal with the boar. Cruel and unnecessary.
gaijintraveller
Awa no Gaijin,
I read the article. Did you read my comments?
I know some hunters. I live in the countryside. The hunters have told me they kill to get a bounty from the city. Some of them eat the meat. Some of them give it away to friends. They do not sell it because they can have problems if they do. They are not allowed to sell their kills because of food hygiene laws.
Would you care to explain how an animal killed in a playground could end up on plates in restaurants or would you agree there appears to be a contradiction in the article? It is that contradiction I would like to clarify.
TokyoOldMan
I've never encountered a Wild Boar - though I have seen online videos of their rather erratic, and dangerous actions.
For an intrusion upon School grounds, the safety of the Children was presumably paramount in the minds of those in charge rather than the safety of the Boar - I would certainly not disagree with that, and indeed, I would wonder, had your Kids been at the same School, would you have thought otherwise ?
Chabbawanga
What an amazing hero