Radioactive boars on the rise in Germany

[BlueStateSaint]

Seeing that I'm not sure where the deuce ot put this, I figured that it should go here.

Radioactive boars on the rise in Germany

By VERENA SCHMITT-ROSCHMANN, Associated Press Writer Verena Schmitt-roschmann, Associated Press Writer – Thu Aug 19, 4:50 am ET

BERLIN – It was a big shot. A big hog. And a big disappointment.

When Georg van Bebber hauled back his wild boar from Ebersberg forest near Munich after a day of hunting, he was exhilarated about his impressive prey.

But before he could take it home, a Geiger counter showed a problem: The boar's meat was radioactive to an extent considered potentially dangerous for consumption. It needed to be thrown out and burnt.

"I really would have liked to have this boar," van Bebber said when he recounted the incident in a telephone interview from Bavaria.

Almost a quarter century after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear meltdown in Ukraine, its fallout is still a hot topic in some German regions, where thousands of boars shot by hunters still turn up with excessive levels of radioactivity. In fact, the numbers are higher than ever before.

The article goes on to say that it's sometimes more lucrative to sell the meat to the government, than it is to commercial interests.  But it also says that the numbers of the animals are increasing as "climate change" causes their food sources to grow in size.

The total numbers represent maybe 0.3% of all of the boars shot last year in Germany.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100819/ap_on_re_eu/eu_germany_radioactive_boars