A wild boar entered the Sant Domènec nursing home in Balaguer, Lleida, on Monday and injured a staff member. It got into the gym area and struck a worker, knocking her down and injuring her leg. The center told EFE that emergency services had to intervene immediately.
Firefighters from the Generalitat responded to the call and confined the wild boar inside the premises. Agents Rurals, Catalonia’s rural agents, then sedated it so it could be safely removed from the residence. The injured worker received initial medical attention from the Sistema d’Emergències Mèdiques (SEM) and was later treated at the Balaguer Primary Care Center (CAP).
The incident shows the challenges posed by wildlife entering urban and residential areas in Catalonia. Encounters with wild boars can disrupt daily routines and raise safety concerns for residents and staff in care facilities, particularly where built-up areas meet wildlife habitat.
Catalonia’s response to wild-boar pressures also includes trapping and physical barriers. In a separate African swine fever containment operation around Collserola, regional authorities reported 13,684 wild boars captured in the infected area, including 308 in one week. The operation used 34 individual traps and 93 collective traps. It also set up 351 closures intended to restrict animal movement. These figures relate to the Collserola control area, not to Balaguer or to the animal involved in the nursing-home incident.
Wild boars are native to parts of Spain, including Catalonia, and local authorities use various measures to manage encounters and movement. Firefighters and Agents Rurals contained and removed the animal, while emergency medical services treated the injured worker.
