Sue Brotherston wants something done to end what she considers a dangerous situation in her neighborhood.
Brotherston lives across from a wild boar farm in Manitoba’s rural municipality of Lac du Bonnet. The owner of the wild boars wants to host hunting on the farm, which is allowed by the province.
Brotherston considers the hunting of penned animals an “atrocious” practice. She also worries about the safety of her 12-year-old son, who catches the school bus across from the wild boar enclosure.
“We never would have bought our house there if we had known we’d be across the street from this type of operation,” Brotherston said.
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She and a neighbor are circulating a petition that calls on Manitoba’s government to ban penned hunting. The petition also calls for stricter regulations for wild boar farms ” so they just can’t be set up anywhere.”
A ditch offers the only buffer between the boar farm and the road where the school bus picks up Brotherston’s child but she said that does nothing to alleviate the risk of a stray bullet coming from a high-powered rifle.
The owner of the wild boars, Stone-wall-area farmer Randy McRorie, could not be reached for comment.
Reeve Dorothy Boznianin said the municipality’s hands are tied. The RM of Lac du Bonnet has no bylaws prohibiting penned hunting of wild boars.
“He’s not doing anything illegal at this point in time,” Boznianin said. “We’re powerless to stop it.”
Boznianin also opposes penned hunting, something that Manitoba’s NDP agriculture minister has promised to abolish as early as next year.
The reeve thinks responsibility for controlling penned hunt farms rests with the province. She accused the province of passing the buck on the issue.
The department that oversees natural resources tells her that jurisdiction rests with the agriculture department. But she said the agriculture department also denies having jurisdiction over the issue.
