Americans
are determined and innovative in hunting down and killing wild pigs.
In
Oklahoma they are using “Judas pigs” carrying a GPS device. They lead hunters
to their friends.
In
Texas, some hunters have started to use helicopters to chase them down.
In
South Carolina, politicians have drafted legislation that would allow hunters
to use night-vision goggles.
In
North Carolina, politicians have approved night hunting without a licence. The
state can also fine people up to $5,000 per pig for transporting fwild hogs.
Wild
hogs have also been designated a nuisance and that makes them easier to trap or
hunt.
“Much
of the nation is now losing a brutal, few-holds-barred war with an exploding
population of millions of feral hogs, and North Carolina is on the front line,
with acres of field crops and delicate wildlife habitat being destroyed daily
and the $1.5 billion pork industry at risk,” says a report carried on Premium Pork's website.
“I
wouldn’t wish this on anybody,” North Carolina farmer Frank Baumgartner said
while standing in a wheat field where wild pigs had flattened at least a dozen
house-sized patches.
“They
tear down even more than they eat, and they eat plenty,” he said.
In
2006, there were confirmed populations of feral pigs in 54 of the state’s 100
counties; the count has now swelled to 88 counties, said Tom Ray, director of
Livestock Health Programs for the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer
Services.
Ray
said there are tens of thousands of feral pigs in North Carolina.
Nationally,
estimates range to five million, and the wild pigs have spread from 17 states
in 1982 to 37 now, said Joseph Corn of the Southern Cooperative Wildlife
Disease Study at the University of Georgia.
Michigan recently joined the effort to eradicate wild pigs.
Biologists
blame much of the boom on hunters who buy feral pigs caught in other states and
release them here.
Also,
it’s believed that a large number of domestic pigs freed when Hurricane Floyd in
1999 damaged hog barns.
“Everybody
talks about rabbits reproducing quickly, but hogs can match or exceed them,”
Ray said. “The difference is that hogs have no real predators. That means one
sow in two years’ time can create 200 more pigs.”
Crop
and habitat destruction totals an estimated $1.5 billion per year.
North
Carolina’s hog industry is worried that diseases could spread to their herds
and prompt quarantines and trading bans.
Ray
said the diseases likely wouldn’t be diagnosed until after spreading throughout
the industry.
Wild
pigs have been seen near big hog farms and signs have been spotted near many
other hog farms.
There
has also been a sharp increase in the number of small specialty operations that
raise pigs on pasture.
Wild
pigs can carry about 30 diseases, many of them also harmful to humans.
Researchers
from North Carolina State University have found several diseases in wild pigs here,
including the discovery that many are harboring bacteria that cause brucellosis.
Chris
DePerno, an associate professor of forestry and environmental resources is seeking funding to explore what paths those diseases
might use to reach domestic populations, and how to block them.
“At
this point, we don’t understand the full nature of the risk, and that’s just
critical,” he said.
