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Radioactive wild boars menace Germany
Charles Hawley, Der Spiegel OnlineIt's no secret that Germany has a wild boar problem. Stories of marauding pigs hit the headlines with startling regularity.... Stoppt jemand bitte die Verrücktheit? (Won't somebody stop the madness?) Even worse, though, almost a quarter century after the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown in Ukraine, a good chunk of Germany's wild boar population remains slightly radioactive.... Das würde erklären, warum mein Speck in die Dunkelheit glüht. (That would explain why my bacon glows in the dark.) According to the Environment Ministry in Berlin, almost 425,000 ($555,000) was paid out to hunters in 2009 in compensation for wild boar meat that was too contaminated by radiation to be sold for consumption.... Mein Gott, jene radioaktiven Schweine sind teuer! (My God, those radioactive pigs are expensive!) Government compensation payments to hunters remain a small part of the 238 million recompense the German government has shelled out for damages relating to Chernobyl since reactor IV exploded on April 26, 1986. Furthermore, there is some relief in sight. Even as wild boar continue to show a fondness for making the headlines, the recent hard winter has had its effect on population numbers. So far this year, Berlin has only had to pay out 130,000 for radioactive boar. Posted by: Mike 2010-08-13 |
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