By now, most on the Coastside have probably heard that Half Moon Bay Police shot and killed a wild boar in a residential area on the city’s north side Thursday. (If this is news to you, see our story on today’s front page.) Police say they got a call about a potentially dangerous wild animal loose in an area that includes many homes.
Wild boar are notoriously mean. People who frequent the wilds of the American West often have tales of coming upon a pack of the pigs. They can charge, they are armed with tusks, and they bite, too.
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With that in mind, it’s easy to see why police made the decision to put down the animal. Half Moon Bay officers are trained to protect life and property, and the boar represented a clear and present danger.
It is less clear why so many people seem to think police would lie about what went on in that field on Thursday. And that part of the story is a little disheartening.
Since the shooting, rumors have run the gamut. Some say police sold the dead animal to an area restaurant. Tuesday I heard that the animal was not a boar, but rather a domestic pig raised for a Half Moon Bay High School FFA project. (That one was easy to check and proved unfounded.)
This time, police could have been more forthcoming, and perhaps that would have helped. They don’t have any photos of the animal — dead or alive. And they won’t say what became of the carcass other than that it was given to some private party for disposal. It seems to me, there should be some procedure for dealing with dead animals and that it shouldn’t be a secret.
But I’m of a mind to believe our police officers. They were faced with a dangerous situation, and they acted quickly to protect the public. I suggest you give them the benefit of the doubt, too. They deserve that much for stepping between us and the various dangers we don’t see coming — like a wild boar in the neighborhood.
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