A woman’s finger tip was ripped off after an encounter with a feral pig, when she tried to shoo the pests away in a friend’s yard.
A male boar launched at Kay Robins and gnawed away at her hands, leaving them in tatters, while she was looking after a friend’s home in Townsville last month.
Her horrific injuries included one broken finger, bite marks on her legs and arms, with deep cuts across six of her fingers – 30 stitches all up.
Pig hunter Guy Keven, 51, told Daily Mail Australia the wild pigs in Townsville are more aggressive than others in the region as there isn’t much sanctuary for them to hide in.
Once they start [attacking] they don’t give up,’ Mr Keven said. ‘Just stay away from them, that’s the best thing – 99 per cent of the time, they go away.’
‘Normally they try and get away unless they’re injured or cornered, most of them only attack if they have got little suckers, or they can’t get away.’
Ms Robins’ terrifying Easter time ordeal started after she discovered a herd of pigs in the yard, and realising she had left an outside gate open.
Most of the pigs scurried out of the yard after she shooed them, but one male pig kept going back and forward as she was trying to direct it out.
Then it charged at her, getting a grip on her hands as she tried to defend herself.
The pig ‘went for my legs’, Robins told 7NEWS.
I put my hands down to try and stop him from eating my legs … and he just started to grab my hands,’ Ms Robins said.
‘I had the piece of bamboo in my right hand, I was poking him in the eye when he was chewing on this hand, and he wasn’t even batting an eyelid. It was not making the slightest bit of difference.’
The animal fastened its teeth onto her hands and wouldn’t let go, as it continued ‘chomping’
Mr Keven said that because Ms Robins was shooing the pigs away, the boar probably got confused and went for her.
‘By the sounds of it, she has come out, and these pigs have run out, but old dopey’s got stuck behind the fence … she’s waving her arms, well of course he’s not going to just stand there.’
Luckily, a neighbour came after hearing her screams, prompting the beast to flee, before Ms Robins went to hospital – which she thought would be a quick visit.
But she was there for six days as swelling in her hands came down – before stitches could be done – including fixing a ‘really flayed open’ index finger.
She revealed this week that she was still having trouble moving her fingers since last month’s trauma.
Ms Robins said she thinks she is lucky to survive but questions whether a child would, and hopes authorities can act on the feral pig problem.
The attack came after locals have complained about the problem for years, with the Queensland Member for Hinchinbrook Nick Dametto calling for state and federal funding to curb the dangerous pests.
Dametto said in 2019 that wild pigs need to be managed ‘constantly’ and support is needed from both state and federal governments.
Mr Keven said the pigs have caused some financial pain for farmers in the region, as they run amok in sugar cane farms – with one farmer estimating he loses $1000 per cane growing season.
The pig hunter said it’s hard to get paid for culling pigs, and does some work off his own back in banana and cane farms.
‘A lot of pigs come out of national parks and forestry so it makes it hard for people to try to keep some sort of control on the numbers,’ he told Daily Mail Australia.
People like me that don’t get paid to help control the numbers, it gets very expensive with fuel, bullets and other costs, so we can not do it as often as we would like – but we like helping out the farmers.’
The North Queenslander goes out at night to hunt and uses thermal gear to track pigs down and uses high powered rifles.
‘But you can’t get high numbers, and you can’t bait the pigs because of the cassowaries – and the pigs are trap shy too,’ he said.
The pig has been in the news recently after the Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) was found detected in them in the Northern Territory, as well as in other domestic pigs.
JEV is a mosquito-borne viral disease that can be amplified in pigs, with the virus being transmitted by infected mosquitos to humans from these animals.
People like me that don’t get paid to help control the numbers, it gets very expensive with fuel, bullets and other costs, so we can not do it as often as we would like – but we like helping out the farmers.’
The North Queenslander goes out at night to hunt and uses thermal gear to track pigs down and uses high powered rifles.
‘But you can’t get high numbers, and you can’t bait the pigs because of the cassowaries – and the pigs are trap shy too,’ he said.
The pig has been in the news recently after the Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) was found detected in them in the Northern Territory, as well as in other domestic pigs.
JEV is a mosquito-borne viral disease that can be amplified in pigs, with the virus being transmitted by infected mosquitos to humans from these animals.
People like me that don’t get paid to help control the numbers, it gets very expensive with fuel, bullets and other costs, so we can not do it as often as we would like – but we like helping out the farmers.’
The North Queenslander goes out at night to hunt and uses thermal gear to track pigs down and uses high powered rifles.
‘But you can’t get high numbers, and you can’t bait the pigs because of the cassowaries – and the pigs are trap shy too,’ he said.
The pig has been in the news recently after the Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) was found detected in them in the Northern Territory, as well as in other domestic pigs.
JEV is a mosquito-borne viral disease that can be amplified in pigs, with the virus being transmitted by infected mosquitos to humans from these animals.
People like me that don’t get paid to help control the numbers, it gets very expensive with fuel, bullets and other costs, so we can not do it as often as we would like – but we like helping out the farmers.’
The North Queenslander goes out at night to hunt and uses thermal gear to track pigs down and uses high powered rifles.
‘But you can’t get high numbers, and you can’t bait the pigs because of the cassowaries – and the pigs are trap shy too,’ he said.
The pig has been in the news recently after the Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) was found detected in them in the Northern Territory, as well as in other domestic pigs.
JEV is a mosquito-borne viral disease that can be amplified in pigs, with the virus being transmitted by infected mosquitos to humans from these animals.