Police taser wild boar downtown

The original sighting was tweeted by a resident overnight sometime after 3am:

According to the RPP, the animals disappeared from surveillance cameras for about two hours before being spotted again and then caught by the authorities waiting to pounce on them with animal doctors from the Dr.Beinerts private veterinary clinic whenever they would reappear.

Adding “in other words, Rīga never sleeps” to his series of tweeted remarks,

Ušakovs later confirmed that the two freely ranging urban swine had made it all the way to Freedom Monument square, perhaps in anticipation of the crowds expected during the immediate subsequent holidays to celebrate Latvia’s independence restoration day.

In any case, RPP’s tight network of surveillance video cameras caught sight of the roaming forest pigs, alerting the monitoring center cops, who promptly dispatched the joint team to bring them in.

Ušakovs tweeted that the first one was finally caught at the exclusive address of Lāčplēša 76a, the other at Sadovņikova 13.

The next brief indicated the boar were sedated and sleeping off their captivity before a planned evacuation to the suburban woods of Mežvairogi in Ķekava district, adjacent to Riga’s territories to the southwest.

However, thereafter came news that the two crews did have to deploy taser guns to electrify at least one the distraught scurrying animals into submission.

Before long a new string of uproarious responses from the Twitter profile of the Riga Wild Boar were coming out, first insisting the capture of their ilk last night “were illegal and unjustified”,

and then declaring “We have the right to see the Freedom Monument!”

Understandably wary of approaching any state or local government authorities after the oddly timed detention of investigative journalist Lato Lapsa by the Security Police (DP) this week, the keepers of Twitter’s Riga Wild Boar profile kindly notified the City Council in advance that “I’m coming to hand in a submission to the appropriate commission to discuss the situation which has come about! This is to request that you not arrest me.”

The boar kept their barrage of sloganeering and propaganda up further, suggesting that while tourism seems to be in a slump here “to consider the marketing possibilities for attracting foreigners,” touting the self-evident tourist-trap potential of their presence.

Then they gave a direct legal-rhetorical challenge to the town authorities: “which article of the administrative law prohibits inhabitants of Latvia from strolling peacefully through the center of Rīga?”

A snouty selfie

was followed by a warning that “I shall consider any commentary mentioning the word ‘shashlik’ to be a direct threat against my life,”

adding indignantly that “I have no objection to humans walking through the city.”

Another pic showed a boar “training before the Riga marathon!”, with subsequent musings on Platonic political philosophy and Orwellian injustice:

“‘The forms of state power are cyclical’, says Plato. Soon will come to power they who will stop this outrageous abuse of the municipal police force.”

“’All animals are created equal, but some more equal than others.’ Orwell was right. Nobody ever touches the Riga canal beavers.”

The sheer envy for the mayor’s beloved feline constituency’s privileges has Riga’s Wild Boar exclaiming “I want to be in its place!”

Plus a scholarly constitutional reminder that Article 93 of Latvia’s Satversme (drafted and signed by the Assembly exactly 95 years ago yesterday) declares: “The Law protects anyone’s right to life. No to the hunting commission!”

Meanwhile the two untamed porcine trespassers into the heart of our civilization have since woken from their tranquilized states and been returned to the wooded surroundings of Ķekava district, animal shelter Meža vairogi owner Mārtiņš Priede told national information agency LETA later Saturday afternoon.

"Everything's fine. The animals slept a little, felt fine after waking and were released right here into the surrounding forest," said Priede.

Asked how much the shelter spent on the whole capture and removal operation with the doctors from Dr.Beinerts, he said the costs couldn't have been too high, in fact the shelter's capacity as an enterprise would allow for a greater number of seized urban pigs rummaging the city's parks and alarming residents and their pets.

"All we can tally is the costs of the tranquilizers and burnt fuel for travel, maybe about 20 euros per incident. This is our daily business, we often get calls to return stray deer and moose back to the woods, so we're prepared to deal with a greater number of wild boar too, if necessary."

Later the mayor posted two local government police videos of the thrilling chase, the first along the central station's railroad tracks, then in the nearby vacant lot where they were finally captured.