Article Courtesy of Channel
6 ClickOrlando.com
By Nadeen Yanes
Published December 7, 2019
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KISSIMMEE – It started with a little patch of torn up grass in Kel Young’s
backyard. Within a week, there was barely any grass left because wild boars kept
digging through his Southport Bay neighborhood near Poinciana.
“They came here every
night, literally, and ripped this apart,” Young said. “I’ve
lived here since 2008 and this is the first time this has
happened.”
Young said it began the Sunday before Thanksgiving and
within a week his entire backyard had been destroyed. Young
set up a motion-sensor camera in his backyard that showed
eight to 10 boars digging away.
“This is what they’ve done last night,” Young said while
pointing at the hundreds of holes around the lake behind his
home. “This is out of hand.”
The boars have since moved to tearing up
the grass at his neighbor’s home and an adjacent to a
sidewalk that connects to a wooded area. |
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Boars have been damaging Kel Young's yard in
Kissimmee.
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Young said the area is near a bus stop.
"We need to trap them or get rid of them as soon as possible," he said.
"What's going to happen is someone is going to get hurt and it's going to be
too late."
Just last month, a 200-pound boar mauled a veteran trapper in Melbourne.
Young said he has called the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office, Osceola County
Commission, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and his
HOA, the Southport Bay Homeowners Association. He said deputies and wildlife
officials told him he’s allowed to shoot and kill the boars because they are
nuisance animals.
Young, a Marine veteran, knows he doesn’t have a lot of room to be firing
off rounds in the middle of the night.
“So everyone is telling me to shoot them, shoot them, shoot them,” Young
said. “I don’t mind, but I don’t want to be walking in the neighborhood or
off of my property with a loaded rifle that puts me in a bad situation.”
The other option, FWC said, is for Young to hire a professional trapper.
Young said he has called eight of them and only one returned his call, with
a quote of $3,500-$4,000 to trap them.
Since the boars are now tearing up the corner of the block, he’s hoping the
Southport Bay HOA can come up with a solution. News 6 called the HOA but has
not yet heard back.
Osceola County officials confirmed there was nothing they could do either.
"I’m not sure who he might have spoken to at the county, but he is correct,
Animal Services does not trap wild animals,” said Mark Pino, a spokesman for
the county.
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