Feral hogs can be culled in California — by making it easier to kill them, lawmaker says
Some Californians are fed up with the presence of destructive feral hogs known for destroying lawns, golf courses, vineyards and other land. A new bill introduced by a state senator could make it easier to deal with the pigs — by making it easier to kill them.
The wild pigs can be found in 56 of California’s 58 counties, according to an announcement about the bill from the office of Sen. Bill Dodd, a Democrat from Napa. They’re known for using their snouts to “root up the ground in search of food, including roots, fungus, and other items,” and they also “consume garden landscape plants and agricultural crops,” according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
“Unfortunately, swelling numbers of wild pigs have become a scourge on California wildlands, endangering sensitive habitats, farms and other animals,” Dodd’s announcement said. “They also present a major public health risk and have been linked to outbreaks of food-borne illness. My bill will increase opportunities to hunt them and do so more economically so that we may bring our pig population under control.”
The pigs can weigh several hundred pounds and be dangerous. In rare cases, the animals have attacked humans, according to The New York Times. But the pigs are primarily notorious for destroying land, including private lawns, soccer and baseball fields, or farmland, as well as potentially contaminating water sources in California by invading creek beds that feed into city water systems, the outlet reported.
“Let me tell you straight up, they are dangerous animals,” Dodd told ABC 7.
According to the bill, SB-856, existing California law requires people to have either a hunting license and a wild pig tag or a depredation permit to kill wild pigs. The bill would replace the wild pig tag requirement with a wild pig validation, which would allow Californians to “take any number of wild pigs specified by the Fish and Game Commission” during the year the validation is issued.
In other words, the bill would allow California property owners and tenants to kill as many wild pigs that they see injuring their livestock or damaging their property as they want. Tenants and property owners could also extend permission to kill wild pigs on their property to others, as long as they do so in writing, the bill says.
“All year long you will be able to hunt as many pigs as you want,” Eric Sklar, a member of the California Game and Fish Commission who supports the bill, told The New York Times.
The bill would also ban anyone from releasing a hog, boar, swine or pig to live in the wild on either public or private lands.
If approved, the bill will become law on July 1, 2023. But the proposed measure has its critics.
Wayne Hsiung, with the animal rights group Direct Action Everywhere, told ABC 7 that he believes lawmakers should focus on humane solutions — for example, sterilization efforts, similar to those used to control populations of stray cats or dogs.
“Most residents of the Bay Area want fewer guns in our communities and less cruelty as well,” Hsiung told the outlet. “This will do the opposite.”
Despite the criticism, Dodd said in the release that his bill has received support from wildlife officials, farmers and other groups.
“These unmanageable herds are tearing up working lands, competing with less aggressive wildlife for food, and rutting the landscape to the point of degraded water quality,” Jennifer Beretta, president of the Sonoma County Farm Bureau, said in the release. “We would never advocate for eradicating an animal population, but the ability to manage the population through science-based management practices is advantageous for farming and open space.”
This story was originally published February 4, 2022 at 7:18 AM with the headline "Feral hogs can be culled in California — by making it easier to kill them, lawmaker says."