Wild boar bit off end of my finger
Dog walker tells of attack after beast burst from the undergrowth
WHEN Clive Lilley took his dog for a walk in the woods it was lucky he was wearing gloves.
For as he strolled along a woodland track a wild boar burst out of the undergrowth and bit his left hand.
Mr Lilley, 53, didn’t realise how serious it was until he got home, took his glove off – and left the tip of his forefinger inside.
In great pain, he was taken to hospital, where doctors were able to stitch his finger.
The attack happened in the Forest of Dean, which has become overrun with wild pigs. They have attacked pets and charged at moving cars, but this is believed to be the first time one has injured a person in the forest in recent times.
Mr Lilley, from Viney Hill, near Lydney in Gloucestershire, was walking his labrador near his home at 7.30am when the boar attacked.
‘It was still very dark so you couldn’t see a thing,’ he said. ‘I was a few hundred yards down the path from my house and I didn’t see the boar – but it was 2ft away and jumped up to bite the forefinger off.
‘Fortunately, I was wearing tight-fitting elasticated gloves which absorbed much of the impact. I felt a dull thud.
‘It was only when I removed the glove a minute later that I realised what had happened because the tip stayed in.
‘I called an ambulance which took me to hospital to have it sewn up. They told me it should grow back around as it did not take the nail off, although there will be a scar.’
Mr Lilley, a house husband, added: ‘I’ve met hundreds of wild boar in the woods previously and never been attacked. It showed no interest at all in my dog, which was a little way up the track.
‘When I reported the incident to the Forestry Commission they said a woman had been knocked over by a wild boar at the same spot half an hour before me. I have never heard of anyone ever having been injured
‘Absorbed the impact’
in this way so there is a possibility it was a rogue pig. It was a large fully-grown animal which came up to my thigh.’
Wild boar were hunted to extinction more than 300 years ago, but there are now believed to be more than 1,500 roaming the Forest of Dean – triple the amount four years ago. They originally established themselves after escaping from a wild boar farm near Ross- on-Wye, Herefordshire, in the 1990s.
In 2004, around 60 of them were illegally dumped near the village of Staunton. By 2009 the two populations had merged and they began breeding, with each sow producing up to 12 piglets a year.
Wild boar have been blamed for at least 49 car crashes and countless ruined gardens.
Children have been told not to venture into the woods for fear of being mauled.
The boar have become more tolerant of human interest. In the past they would disappear into the woods at the sight of people, but many now continue foraging for food even when walkers are nearby. The Forestry Commission has vowed to reduce the population to 400 with an annual cull, but numbers remain much higher.
A spokesman said: ‘We are aware of an incident in which a member of the public sustained an injury to his hand caused by a wild boar in the Forest of Dean.
‘We would like to remind woodland users that wild boar can be unpredictable, particularly when they have young close by.
‘We would also like to remind people not to feed the boar either in the forest or in the neighbouring communities.
‘The boar quickly learn to associate people with food and then may seek food from walkers. The boar are well adapted to the forest and have no need of supplementary food.’