Anger as hunters sent to cull wild boar damaging Sai Kung golf courses

A hunting party was called in to shoot and kill wild boar on the Kau Sai Chau public golf courses in Sai Kung after the animals breached electric fences and damaged 44,000 square metres of turf in the past two months.

The population of boar, some of which are believed to swim out to the golfing island, which lies a 15-minute boat ride from Sai Kung, has grown steadily and is estimated to be 20.

The Jockey Club, which runs the club on donated government land, said it had made several attempts to keep out the boar and had built a 25km electric fence.

However, the efforts failed to stop boar from breaking onto the fairways, frightening golfers and digging in search of food, damaging about 2 per cent of the turf on the club's three 18-hole courses.

On Tuesday members of the Sai Kung Hunting Team took part in an authorised hunt on the island, shooting three 100kg boar.

The hunt angered the Hong Kong Wild Boar Concern Group, which branded it "cruel".

Group spokesman Roni Wong Ho-yin was incensed by a photograph of hunters posing with guns over two dead boar.