Wild boar bowls man on street

File photo / Daily Post

A man knocked to the ground by a pig in a Northland street says the public should be warned a wild boar could be on the loose.

Terence Marsh has a badly bruised groin where the enraged tusker slammed into him, knocking him to the ground on Thursday afternoon in Ruakaka.

His jeans were torn in the attack and Mr Marsh, a nurse, said if the pig had swung its head to the side its tusk could have ripped open his femoral artery, a potentially fatal injury.

Sporting bruises and aches and still shaken days later, Mr Marsh said he is thankful that being bowled over did not undo the spinal surgery he had only three weeks ago.

Mr Marsh said that when a strong public safety warning needed to be issued, Environment Northland boss Keith Thompson had "down-played" the incident.

In the Northern Advocate on Monday, Mr Thompson said it was possibly a domestic pig that had gone feral.

"I cannot understand why he would say that," Mr Marsh said. "This pig knocked me flat on my back and then came back for another go. If I hadn't kicked it off with my gumboots I could have been seriously gored."

He said people should be warned there was an extremely dangerous animal possibly still on the loose.

"If they see it, go inside and call animal control, ring neighbours and tell everyone to get their kids inside. Don't, whatever you do, go near it."

Mr Thompson said he did not refute the incident occurred and was only stating that animal control officers had found no evidence of a pig in the area.

He also urged people to call animal control if they saw a pig in an area it shouldn't be. Mr Marsh said he grew up on a farm and knew about pigs.

"This was a wild boar.

"It was about 70-80 kg, bigger than a rottweiler, and dark tan with black patches. ... It had a long snout and a reasonably long tail with a tuft at the end, and it was no domestic pig."

The pig had smashed its way through wire strand fences as it crossed paddocks in semi-rural Camellia Ave.

Mr Marsh said when he first saw the boar it was bleeding from the nose.

He had gone outside to investigate what was upsetting horses in a neighbour's paddock and dropped to a crouching position when he saw the pig trying to break its way through a fence.

Mr Marsh said should he spot a wild pig near his semi-rural home again he would not hesitate to get out his rifle and shoot it.