Feral hogs moving into city neighborhoods
By LYNDA STRINGER - Tribune City Editor
Saturday, January 10, 2009 12:07 PM CST
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| Quail Creek addition resident Ray McCann demonstrates how this device works to trap the feral hogs that are damaging his and his neighbors' yards. Mount Pleasant Animal Control officers set up the trap - borrowed from a city firefighter - Thursday morning. TRIBUNE photo by Lynda Stringer |
Residents in the Quail Creek addition on North Jefferson are now facing the same problems with feral hogs that some county landowners do on a daily basis. The dozen or so houses in the addition are on either side of Quail Creek nestled among a dense population of trees. Ray and Sandee McCann and their neighbors have noticed damage to their yards in the last few weeks, but it never occurred to them that the damage was caused by wild hogs.
"At first we'd see a little bit of disturbing of the ground and we thought it was armadillos or something like that. But, we were driving into town and we saw a dead hog on the road and the city came and picked that up," McCann said. "Then I got to looking outside and I saw tracks and they weren't armadillo tracks. They were hog tracks. That's when we realized what was happening and just about every night they'd come and do more damage."
McCann contacted Mount Pleasant Animal Control to report the problem and find out what they could do.
Senior Animal Control Officer Theri Brown said her department has not picked up any live hogs, but they have had several calls recently to pick up hogs that have been struck and killed by cars.
The dead hog McCann and his wife saw two weeks ago was on Highway 271 North. It was just past The Links at an entrance to the golf course.
"That one was so big that we had to have a backhoe carry it back up here," Brown said. "This last weekend [animal control officer] Noel Harrison got four calls to pick up two on Old Paris Road and two in Point North addition on Harts Bluff Road."
Brown said it is common to see feral hogs on the now abandoned coal mining land on Old Paris Road in the county heading toward Winfield, but this is the first time they have had to deal with them inside the city limits.
"I don't know what it is about this year, but we've had more and more reports of them being out and destructive. Mr. McCann's yard is torn to pieces," Brown said.
Walking around the McCann's home and through his neighbors' yards, the evidence is clear that the hogs have even been rooting for food and digging up grass right up to the houses.
"I talked to Wanda Greene [who lives] across the creek from us and she got out and walked around and her yard was really devastated," McCann said. "Next door on either side of us they've had the same problem."
The hogs destroyed a neighbor's herb garden, he said.
"Apparently, they are coming down Quail Creek and coming off the banks and into the properties. There are no fences," McCann said.
In response to his call for help, Brown and Harrison showed up on his doorstep Thursday morning with a trap they had borrowed from a city firefighter who hunts wild hogs.
"I was pleased about that because I know they don't have money to fund this sort of thing, but we have to do something because I suspect if nothing is done, eventually they'll be over at the golf course," he said.
The trap Brown and Harrison set up behind McCann's house is a metal hay ring rigged with a trip wire. The officers baited the trap with corn soaked in water and KoolAid, Brown said.
"Our next step is to create our own hog traps," Brown said. "We want to do whatever we can to make our citizens safe," she said.
Property damage is a concern of the residents', but safety is also an issue.
"The safety issue most people have mentioned is the chance of them hitting the hogs with their cars," Brown said.
"It is very dangerous if a car hits one," said Texas AgriLife Extension Agent Kenny Rollins, who is all too familiar with the problem. He deals with it daily on the Morris County property he leases.
"If one of those little fuel efficient cars hits something that weighs 300 pounds going 60 miles per hour, you really can do some major damage to the vehicle or it could injure you if it causes an accident," he said. "They're so low to the ground and they're just one big muscle. They are heavy."
McCann cautioned his neighbors that if the hogs were disturbed or cornered, they could become aggressive.
"Especially if there's a mother hog and you get in between her and her pigs," he said.
Rollins also warned of the dangers of people encountering them.
"If you startle them they will come right at you, not run away from you. It can be very dangerous for kids playing," he said.
They hogs are nocturnal, though.
McCann said he has not seen any of them, although he tried to keep a late night vigil to spot them. He has only seen the evidence they leave behind in the morning.
Rollins said a recent population explosion is to blame for the nuisance breed venturing into the city. He said he has killed 50 feral hogs on his property in the last 30 days and can trap seven to 15 of them at a time.
"In the last two years they have exploded in numbers and it appears this last year has been very favorable to the population. The sows can have two litters a year. The other day I shot a sow and she had 10 babies in her. It can get out of proportion very fast," he said.
Rollins also said a good acorn crop this year is likely compounding the problem, but they are not just looking for acorns.
"They are looking for these weeds that have a turnip-type thing on the end, a root. They really like worms. It is said they can smell a worm two feet in the ground."
He said the hogs are carnivores also and they will get into trash.
"They'll eat meat. Nothing is off limits for them," he said.
While Brown said her department does have some money in its budget to acquire or build more traps, they will need more support to combat the growing problem.
She talked to Rollins and learned that the state has not allocated any funding for counties and cities to deal with the feral hog problem.
Rollins said the Texas Animal Damage Control agency, which has an agent based in Pittsburg, has the expertise to help eradicate the problem.
"The problem is that in East Texas, they are strictly beaver trappers, period. In West Texas, they shoot coyotes. They can't shoot the wild hogs because they don't have permission to do that," Rollins said.
The problem is funding and manpower, he said.
He said the state allocated $500,000 to fund a feral hog study and control program a few years ago, but after Hurricane Ike severely eroded South Texas beaches, and that money was re-allocated.
"In my opinion, Animal Damage Control can give up shooting beavers in Titus County. That is secondary. The bigger problem that everybody is having is the feral hogs," Rollins said. "When they start coming to town, it's not only a nuisance, it becomes a health issue because they carry some diseases, too."
Residents in the county have free rein to shoot feral hogs.
"There is no season. They can hunt and shoot them 24/7/365," Rollins said.
He said a landowner doesn't need a license to shoot them on his own property, but to hunt them on someone's else's property, you would have to have a license and the landowner's permission.
However, because there is a city ordinance that prohibits discharging a firearm in the city limits, city homeowners would have to rely on traps to rid their yards of the destructive beasts.
"You don't want your neighbor to have a gun at night and shoot something that comes into their yard. That is not safe. So, we need something that's in place that is prudent. That's where this agency that has the skills could come in and help," Rollins said.
Rollins urged citizens to write their state representatives to enlist the trapper agency's help.
Rep. Mark Homer (D), Paris, represents Titus County.
While Rollins said trapping feral hogs and selling them to an approved sale facility is the best plan, there are transportation laws regarding feral hogs that people must follow.
He also said the animals are smart and catch on to the trap ruse quickly.
"Since this last group we caught, they come in at night and they will eat the corn up to the trip wire in the trap. They know where that wire is and they stop and turn and go back," he said. "There comes a time when that animal will not go in the trap and that animal is going to have to be dealt with."
Tribune City Editor Lynda Stringer can be reached at 903-572-1705, ext. 214 or by email at lynda@dailytribune.net.
