Polish animal activists block govt-ordered boar hunt

WIATROWIEC, Poland: Denouncing what they call the slaughter of wild boar, Polish animal rights activists are keeping a close watch on hunters and trying to stymie a cull ordered by the government.

Polish authorities introduced the hunting plan to stem an outbreak of African swine fever (ASF), which is deadly to wild boar and pigs and was first spotted in the EU member in 2014 when infected boar entered from Belarus.

"Stop hunting, come down, you look like a good man," 44-year-old animal rights activist Anna Ruszkiewicz said to a hunter sitting in a hunting tower in the middle of a forest south west of Warsaw.

"Come over to the other side of the barricade, join people like us who are protecting animals instead of killing them," the activist clad in a yellow vest added gently.