Haifa’s war on wild boars drops off the grid, as key oversight quietly disappears |
Last month, tempers flared in Haifa’s Western Carmel neighborhood. As reported by Channel 12 News, gunshots rang out across the area. One resident, hearing animal cries outside her home, stepped into her yard to find a row of wild boars lying in pools of blood. One of the carcasses was quickly taken away; the others remained until neighbors called the municipal hotline.
The incident soon reached the Israeli animal welfare group Let the Animals Live and, according to attorney Roni Ben David from its legal team, joined a growing list of recent reports involving boar encounters and shootings in Haifa.
To see whether the apparent rise in boar shootings was backed by data, staff at Let the Animals Live checked the Haifa municipality website for the monthly reports issued by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority documenting a joint culling program. The latest report posted, however, dates back to last year.
When Let the Animals Live asked INPA for updated figures, the group learned that the joint culling program with the municipality had ended at the start of 2026 and that responsibility for the issue now rested solely with the municipality.
Attorney Ben David has filed a Freedom of Information request with the municipality seeking updated 2026 data, but has yet to receive a response.
If the Israel Nature and Parks Authority is no longer involved, and the public and animal welfare groups lack access to information, what oversight remains over the municipality’s actions — and over the boar hunters carrying out the shootings?
Haifa, built on the heavily forested slopes of Mount Carmel, has long struggled with wild boars venturing out of the natural ravines and into residential neighborhoods to forage for trash and pet food — often tearing up public parks, blocking roads, and terrifying locals in the process.
The joint project of the INPA and the Haifa municipality to reduce friction between residents and the city’s boars was launched in the summer of 2021, during the term of the previous mayor, Einat Kalisch-Rotem. It was supposed to run for five years, but in practice ended after a little more than four.
The ambitious project sought to implement an interdisciplinary approach to solving the problem, based on the understanding among professionals that only a combination of several measures could reduce the friction between people and wildlife.
The work plan included blocking wild boars’ access from the wooded ravines into neighborhoods using fences and gates; increasing garbage bin collection and securing the bins so that the boars could not turn them over; banning the public from feeding boars; and also changing the way cats were fed (since the boars had become their dining partners).
The final component of the plan, and the most explosive one, is shooting boars defined as “rogue,” meaning those that have already become accustomed to human surroundings and are not afraid........