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Wild boar spotted roaming Staffordshire countryside captured at farm

A group of wild boar which were roaming Staffordshire have been captured at a farm.

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The wild boar has earlier been spotted in a back garden in Staffordshire. Picture: @Trixie4795

Residents in Burntwood had been warned by Staffordshire County Council to avoid the mammals.

The wild boar made their way into Bleakhouse Farm, Ironstone Road, on Easter Sunday – raiding the stock cupboards in the process.

The animals have since been captured – with the owners having built a pen for them.

Sally Bradshaw, who runs the farm, said: "We know of the wild boars around Burntwood and on Easter Sunday they have managed to get into the farm and the stock cupboards – and into our animal food.

"We've got them temporarily in a dog pen while we're working on a pen for them.

"Nobody wants to know and we've got them now.

"Everyone is passing the buck.

"The boar have made themselves up here – there's seven piglets and one has been run over it seems."

Sally said she believes the animals had been dumped.

She said: "We're going to put them in a new pen in the enclosure.

"We're going to put details on Facebook to help keep them by spending £2 for pig food.

"Everyone is passing the buck – they say they belong to us now because they're on the land.

"The mother is very friendly. She's been having a tickle and the piglets, they're around eight to 10 weeks old.

"We think someone has had them and dumped them and the male is around the area as well, looking for them.

"I've lived here for 26 years and I've never seen anything like this before."

It comes after Derek Crawley, the chairman of Staffordshire Mammal Society, previously said it was the first time boar had been spotted in the county.

He said: "As far as we're concerned there have never been any wild boar within Staffordshire, and we are convinced that these animals have been let go by somebody.

"They tend to use their noses to turn up the turf, we would have seen that in the area if they'd been here before as it's popular with dog walkers.

"Wild boar tend to be farmed, sometimes they don't make enough money from them so they let them go.

"It's classed as a dangerous wild animal so you need to have additional protection such as double fencing to keep them."