The Barcelona City Council has urgently tendered a new contract for the provision of the service of reactive capture of wild boars on public roads in Barcelona which, as a result of a series of administrative problems, was in danger of being left unattended. The contract, which has a maximum duration of four months that can be extended by another two, confirms that the Barcelona Council has chosen, at least for now, to prioritize the capture and death of these mammals over the alternative of sterilization .
Last June, the contract awarded to the Wildlife Ecopathology service of the Autonomous University of Barcelona ended, which stated to the City Council that it was not interested in extending it because it was having difficulties covering the availability of on-call veterinarians. For this reason, a new contract was processed which was awarded to the company Astrovet Solutions at the end of August. Nevertheless, on September 22, the Consistory became aware of a special procurement appeal against this award which, given the usual delay in the resolution of this type of administrative litigation, has led it to seek a solution 'emergency through this new tender, "totally essential" according to the documentation provided, and which has an estimated value of almost 100,000 euros.
The service includes the resolution of incidents related to the presence of "conflicting wild boars" in the green spaces and public streets of Barcelona, through capture, anesthesia and euthanasia which, in accordance with current legislation, requires the services of a veterinarians, to whom the aforementioned tasks correspond.
The terms of the tender specify that, as a general rule, the Urban Guard receives a notice of the presence of wild boars and, if necessary, travels to the site of the incident and decides how to act. If you need the presence of a veterinarian, activate the service by calling the successful tenderer. Within a maximum of one hour, the veterinarian must arrive at the site and proceed to anesthetize the animal, perform euthanasia, transport it and dispose of the corpse. The Urban Guard has anesthetic guns.
Since 2010, the local police in Barcelona have been recording incidents related to wild boars that are reported to them by citizens. The number of warnings has increased in recent years at the same time as the wild boar population grew and they were getting closer and closer to inhabited areas. Thus, 1,202 incidents were recorded in 2021 and 1,321 in 2022. These figures double those reported in previous years: 633 in 2019 and 585 in 2020.
The service requested by Barcelona City Council includes the capture and removal of the specimens from the three fixed cages, two located at Llars Mundet and a third at the Laberint d’Horta park.
The bases of the service specify that avoidable suffering or mistreatment will not be caused to the individuals of the species...beyond their elimination.
