no dogs were shot or wounded by the participants... all done in the heat of battle. I personally saw one dog (looked like a podengo\dogo cross) being chased down a dirt track by a very large boar and a friend saw a beater carrying one of the woundedoff the battlefield with its innards out... (i wont post that here)
The boar kept pacing back and forth in the brush nervously very close to where I was standing, It was pretty worked up, breathing heavily, grunting and breaking branches, so I kept very quiet waiting my chance and expecting it to come out. but it never did for over 30min. Instead it held its ground in the safety of the thick cover, but very close to the track, maybe 5m away from me, I could hear it breathing.. As you would expect the adrenaline rush was out of this world. Then after a while a large dog came bounding down the track, it stopped and sniffed the air where the boar was pacing back and forth making a racket as it broke branches. Then the dog barked once or twice and then bolted for its life when the beast charged at it out from amidst of the brambles and gorse. I watched them both disappear down the track without any chance of a safe shot because of the dog... However it was exciting a fk.
boar hunting is a bit of a battle when the boar are wild and the dogs are crazy.
When the beaters have over 20 dogs each vests and gear for all of them could be pushing it... though one of them had gps trackers on all his dogs which is very expensive. he was the beater that lost the 5 dogs by the way. there were 3 groups of beaters with about 20 dogs each
to tell the truth this hunt was a bit on the wild side. Never seen such carnage amongst the hounds either.
dogs being stitched up is quite normal though when there are large boar.
All dogs are covered by insurance. (however I wouldnt like to lose a good hound either... )