Malaga mayor proposes using captured wild boar meat for human consumption: is it feasible?

De la Torre has called for a solution that will both cause the least amount of suffering for the animals and benefit the population

Chus Heredia

Malaga

Saturday, 29 March 2025 | Updated 31/03/2025 17:54h.

Malaga's mayor, Francisco de la Torre, raised the question regarding the more frequent sightings of wild boar in the city's neighbourhoods during his appearance on Málaga TeVé last week. He called for a solution that will both cause the least amount of suffering for the animals and benefit the population - the use of narcotic darts for their capture and subsequent processing for human consumption.

The question is whether wild boar meat is safe to use?

Wild boar crisis in the city

The debate on wild boar has intensified in recent months. The animals have become accustomed to urban environments and there have been quite a few sightings of a single specimen or fuller herds in parks, playgrounds, neighbourhoods, urban riverbeds, a shopping centre and even Malaga city centre.

Malaga is "a city very immersed with nature, which is very nice and beautiful, until nature enters the city," said De la Torre, reminding that the issue with wild boar started during the Covid pandemic.

The mayor's proposal is to find a way to not waste captured animals and use their meat for consumption, while still regulating their population. According to SUR estimates released on 12 October 2024, the wild boar population in the province is 22,000.

Wild boar meat for consumption?

With the department of forestry policy and biodiversity declaring a temporary hunting emergency, a question comes: is it possible to use wild boar meat for human consumption?

"Let's not think that slaughterhouses and sausage factories work in a vacuum, they work on animals that have been, in a very civilised and environmentally sensitive way, put at the disposal of the meat industry. Something similar could be done [with wild boars], guaranteeing health," said De la Torre.

According to the BOJA official gazette of the Junta de Andalucía, self-consumption and commercialisation are permitted in certain cases, which depend a lot on the health requirements. Head of Malaga's natural environment management service Félix Gómez-Guillamón stated that the specimens captured in interurban cages are then passed to public company Tragsatec, which treats the meat for commercialisation, with all the proceeds going towards the Treasury. In the case of loose catches, with few specimens, self-consumption is also allowed, as long as the meat undergoes relevant controls and veterinary analysis.

At all times, Gómez-Guillamón highlighted the importance of health controls, giving examples when meat has had to be incinerated due to finding that it does not pass health regulations. "We still see a lot of cases of the trichinae parasite in Andalucía," he said, warning that entire families can suffer the consequences their whole lives.

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