Wild boar populations have expanded across Europe and into urban fringes, creating human-wildlife conflicts that require welfare-conscious management approaches balancing safety and animal wellbeing.
Wild boar in urban areas face stress from human encounters, vehicle collisions, and persecution through culling that disrupts family group (sounder) cohesion. Orphaned piglets after sounder disruption face poor survival prospects. Culled boar that are wounded but escape suffer pain and infection before dying. Fertility control approaches offer better welfare outcomes by managing populations without lethal intervention, though implementation at scale is challenging. Reducing food attractants in urban areas through waste management addresses the root cause more humanely.