In a report published by usatoday.com the United States is experiencing an explosion in the population of feral hogs. Large numbers of wild hogs are causing a lot of problems from tony towns on the Pacific Coast to the swamps of the Caroline’s. They’re playing havoc with motorists, spreading diseases, devouring crops and terrifying landowners.
Many people are not aware of the dangers a wild hog can cause to them and their property too. The hogs have a four-inch razor-sharp tusk and the breed quickly causes their population to escalate. People wild hogs will definitely attack a human being without cause and they can do severe damage with their tusk as they become aggressive and mean.
When I was a youngster some of us children were hiking in the woods when we came upon a wild hog, it chased after us and we had to stay in a tree for a long period of time before the hog left. I was frightened because I had never encountered such a large disgusting looking aggressive and powerful beast. It had a beard and a tusk and it was making grunting sounds causing me to fear for my life. This is the only time in my travels through life that I’ve ever experienced such an act. I’ve seen wild hogs in my travel within the states and I’ve also seen the damage they can do to acreage.
It was reported also that Billy Higginbotham, a professor at Texas A&M University stated, “We know Texas has more feral hogs than any other state. With 1.5 million in the state, we’ll never eradicate them. The best to hope for is to keep their number under control.”
These feral hogs descended from swine that fled from large farms or boars that were released into the wild by hungers as a means of their sports activity. The hogs grew to become enormous and their weight can be as much as 400 pounds and they’re powerful, aggressive, mean and easily aroused.
Wild hogs have an ravenous appetite and it’s unbelievable to watch them devouring food; they’ll eat anything they can find. They’ve been known to plow up acres of fields searching for food beneath the ground. They’ll go for any vegetable such as acorns, zucchini, pumpkins, cucumbers, and other buried vegetables, and if they do not find any food they’ll turn to people’s homes to rummage through their trash of anything they can find in their home areas.
Our family raised hogs and I know the amount of food they’ll eat and the way they can plow up the earth in their pens and these were not “wild” hogs. The hogs our family raised had good personalities and they loved to be stroked and brushed with a corn cob or brush. I watched them as they would become aggressive and mean with the other hogs if they did not get their share of the food they were given. I can understand if they are turned loose to roam the earth how they too could become “wild” hogs too.
They have “no” problems with reproduction either and they’ll breed litters of dozens or more piglets at least twice a year. The number of babies in a litter can be as many as 12 or even more. Wild hogs are smart and they are protective of their young too.
They’re becoming a severe menace to the scenic coastal city of Carmel, California, causing accidents from darting out into oncoming traffic.
Wild hogs carry diseases such as brucellosis, pseudorabies and tuberculosis. Missouri wildlife officials have reported that hunters have been chased up trees by aggressive hogs in Show-Me State.
Higginbotham also said, “A Texas property owner told him, “I fear allowing my grandchildren to go beyond the yard as they might be attacked by wild hogs.”
There are several states that have responded to the over-population situation of hogs by declaring an open hunting season on all wild hogs year-round with “no” limit in the number a hunter can kill.
Tennessee is allowing hunters to kill all the wild hogs (male/female) they want to on privately owned land as long as they have the owners permission; and the Missouri Department of Conservation advises on their Web site, “When encountering any feral hogs while hunting, shoot the hogs on sight.”
A bounty has been placed on wild hogs heads in the County of Van Zandt in Texas, and they’re offering to pay $7.00 for each matched pair of ears they get of feral hogs; and in one month, they’ve written checks for 568 pairs of hog ears.
It’s my opinion wild hogs are savages in any area of vegetation and they’ll plow up an area to leave a barren forest floor which causes areas of erosion and it permits weeds to then spread throughout the entire area.
Write of this article is Barbara Kasey Smith and it is based on a report by usatoday.com.
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