Okay, if you’ve gotten past the click-bait headline, here’s the rest of the story. The BBC reports Denmark builds anti-pig border fence amid swine flu fears.
Denmark has started building a 70km (43-mile) fence along its border with Germany in an effort to control the migration of wild boar.
There are fears that African swine fever, which has been found in two dead wild boar in Belgium, could threaten Denmark's huge pig industry.
If the disease spreads, it could jeopardise almost $1.7bn (£1.3bn) in pork-product exports from Denmark.
But some opponents have questioned how effective the $12m (£9m) fence will be.
While Trump is using scare talk of crime and drugs to rile up the racist fears of his base, and is threatening to shut the US government down again or declare an emergency if he doesn’t get his wall, Denmark is looking to a fence to keep out problematic border crossers for more pragmatic reasons.
Although the situation is simpler, it still illustrates problems with walls — costs, effectiveness, inconvenience… and this is with a far less ambitious design.
When completed later this year, the border fence will:
- Be 1.5m (5ft) tall, and at least 50cm (1.6ft) deep to stop boar burrowing under
- Have about 20 gaps at border crossing points and waterways
- Have at least one gate ever kilometre and steps elsewhere so humans can climb over it
- Have 20cm (8 in) square openings every 100m (300ft) for small animals to move through
Denmark is also easing hunting restrictions, "allowing wild boar hunts around the clock", and stepping up fines for livestock transport that has not been properly disinfected. Such hunting measures have also been introduced in other countries such as France and Poland.
Skeptics note that wild boars can swim, that there will also be gaps at roadways, and that this is driven in part by the need to appear to be doing something for the politics of it all.
The damage that would be done by an outbreak of swine fever among Danish pork producers is not negligible, but a wall can only be part of efforts to prevent it. There is no vaccine and the only thing that can be done is to slaughter infected livestock to prevent the disease from spreading, along with strict disinfection controls. It’s going to take a broad effort on many fronts to provide an effective response.
It’s a real problem, if nowhere near as complex as dealing with humans, but it can be taken as an object lesson on the follies of looking for easy answers — like building “a beautiful wall” and expecting it to be ‘magic’.