Lawyers from UAnimals have sent an appeal to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, urging them to revise the draft resolution regarding the reward for discovering wild boar carcasses. The legal team sees risks in this draft of incentivizing the intentional killing of animals for money.
The government resolution from August 28 of this year establishes a fixed reward for individuals who find a wild boar carcass. Such a carcass can be a source of African swine fever, a viral disease that spreads rapidly among both wild and domestic pigs.
However, the resolution lacks clear criteria for the carcasses that are eligible for a reward. UAnimals is concerned that poachers might claim the reward not for finding an animal that died of the disease but for killing a healthy boar.
“Reward payments are also practiced in the European Union,” says epizootologist and national consultant of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Volodymyr Polishchuk. “This works quite effectively in the Baltic countries. Usually, the carcasses of both wild and domestic pigs, which owners may have discarded, are animals that died as a result of African swine fever. These carcasses must be disposed of. EU countries pay a reward, part of which goes to the state inspector and part to the person who discovered the carcass if they marked the site or waited there for the inspector.”
Despite the resolution aligning with EU practices, it does not clearly specify which animal carcasses can be reported. UAnimals’ lawyers suggest that the rule should state that these should be carcasses without signs of hunting and showing signs of natural death. This would help prevent cases of poaching motivated by financial rewards.
Determining the exact cause of death would not be possible for random witnesses, says Volodymyr Polishchuk: “There are many diseases with similar external symptoms, so it’s impossible to determine the cause of death just by looking at the carcass. A laboratory test is necessary.”
According to standard practice, when a carcass is found, the veterinary service must be called. Around the area where African swine fever is detected, a protection zone with a radius of at least 3 kilometers is established. A surveillance zone with a radius of up to 10 kilometers is also set up around the protection zone. All pigs in the surveillance zone are culled, and carcasses are disposed of. This helps stop the spread of the virus.
Therefore, UAnimals’ legal team also suggests offering higher payments for carcasses found in protection or surveillance zones, changing the reward from a fixed to a differentiated one.
According to the “Stop ASF” organization, 640 cases of African swine fever have been recorded in Ukraine since 2012. In recent years, outbreaks of this disease have been regularly documented in the country.
At the same time, African swine fever is not harmful to humans. Therefore, it is crucial to find a balance between encouraging citizens to combat the spread of the disease and preventing harm to the wild boar population.
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Image: Valentin Panzirsch
