Le Figaro Marseille
It's a Wednesday morning like any other in Marignane.
The supermarket and bakery signs in the Palun business zone shine under the sun.
Suddenly, near the main road, a black shape appears in the distance.
Then a second, near a hotel.
But these are not tourists with their wheeled suitcases.
The image becomes more distinct, and we can see large pigs with dark fur.
A situation far from being anecdotal in Marignane.
For almost fifteen years, the small town near Marseille has been facing a proliferation of the animal, to the point that the situation has become extremely tense.
According to the Marignane town hall, last December, no fewer than 600 pigs were counted in the town, some of which were wandering the streets of the town.
The story begins around fifteen years ago.
These large animals were seen in a wood in Marignane, overnight, without it being possible to determine, even today, why or who brought them here.
“I don’t know how to explain the source of all this,”
admits Véronique Tardy, deputy mayor of Marignane in charge of animal welfare.
I have lots of fables told to me.
I know that they have been there since 2007 and that they proliferated until 2020, when we were called for help.
Near a bodywork
The pigs began to occupy a space adjacent to a bodywork.
The bodybuilder tried to stem the problem, created an association to deal with it, and called on the town hall to help him relay this process.
But the years passed, and the pigs tirelessly proliferated.
“Pigs are fertile at the age of four months and they can have four litters per year of around ten to twelve piglets
,” calculates the elected official.
The pigs then move further and further away from the forest, until they take over the streets of the city, and in particular the parking lot of the shopping area, sometimes fed by locals who buy bread from the bakery next door.
Some also adopt, moved, piglets, before releasing the much less cute pigs as adults.
The Brigitte-Bardot Foundation is finally putting its nose into the matter to try to stem the phenomenon.
The start of a partnership is then established between the town hall and the association.
The pigs are castrated.
Enclosures are built to separate them.
Despite these measures, some of the pigs continue to wander peacefully in Marignane.
“It was not very conclusive
,” regrets Christophe Marie, deputy director and spokesperson for the Brigitte Bardot foundation.
“It was unmanageable,”
says Véronique Tardy.
We had created a network to feed the animals.
But the association told us at the end of the year that it no longer had enough to feed.
From 100 pigs, we went to 600 pigs.
It took more than 3,000 euros per month to feed the animals.
How did you want to do it?
Let's also not forget that there was cannibalism, with the strongest eating the weakest.
Is this a bearable situation for a town hall?
We were overwhelmed.”
Health risk
The abundance of pigs, whose growth seems out of control, is beginning to cause concern.
“We must also be aware that wandering animals can represent the danger of accidents, since we are near busy roads
,” points out Christophe Marie.
The town hall, for its part, fears the health risk behind this unusual animal presence.
“We must not forget that we are in an international transport zone,”
argues Véronique Tardy.
Swine fever is on the doorstep of Italy.
An English person was infected with this plague although we previously thought that the virus was not transmissible to humans.
And all it takes is for an Italian carrier to arrive with a spoiled sandwich.
He gives it to the pigs thinking they are doing the right thing.
And in this sandwich, there are the swine fever bacilli.
And There you go !"
At the end of last year, the Marignane town hall finally took a radical decision, without notifying the Brigitte-Bardot foundation.
“We found ourselves faced with a wall, a serious, very painful decision which certainly made some people sick but it had to be done,”
explains Véronique Tardy.
We had no choice.
The town hall decided in all conscience to part with part of the livestock because it was out of the question to continue feeding these animals and we did not have enough food.
Some of the pigs left smoothly, because we chose the best of the least bad solutions.
It’s euthanasia, yes, but by falling asleep under control.”
Around 250 pigs were killed, provoking the indignation of the Brigitte-Bardot foundation.
“There was no consultation on this issue, and we felt betrayed in our trust
,” regrets Christophe Marie.
In a disaster, the association is looking for a solution to save the remaining pigs, around 200 of which are still alive and wandering according to him.
Finally, the Brigitte-Bardot foundation finds breeders who agree to act as a partner pension in the Bouches-du-Rhône department to take care of these animals and look after them for life.
The foundation, for its part, takes care of the financial aspect.
“We ask them to live their lives, without the risk of euthanasia
,” proclaims Christophe Marie.
“It’s a relief to know that these animals are going to a better life and not a life of wandering, because it’s not a life to hang out in the street like that looking and begging for food.”
, believes Véronique Tardy.
A hundred pigs captured
Since the start of the week, the Brigitte-Bardot foundation has stopped off in Marignane to capture the pigs one by one, to their new home.
To date, around 100 have been captured.
“The town hall has set up capture enclosures,”
explains Christophe Marie.
The animals are rounded up for food and can then be loaded more easily onto trucks.”
“The objective is to find a solution for all the animals, because if we leave a female, very quickly, they will reproduce
,” recognizes Christophe Marie.
We will also then have to follow the groups in Marignane to be able to intervene.
So it’s going to be a job that’s not going to happen overnight.
And the phenomenon is not going to disappear overnight either.
»
And for good reason: the exact number of pigs is such that it remains unknown to this day.
Véronique Tardy sighs.
“Marignane without pigs?
It will not be possible.
In any case, there will always be people who collect little pigs to make them grow.
And when they reach 40 kg, they will bring them back.
Behind her, a truck full of pigs moves away to join the departmental road.