Feral Pigs Terrorize Florida Residents (VIDEO)

Though everyone loves Porky Pig and Babe, in reality, pigs can prove to be quite meddlesome. Florida residents have been experiencing this lately, and seem to be quite fed up with it.

According to Smithsonian Magazine, wild hogs are the most destructive invasive species in the United States. There are an estimated two million roaming the Southeast and South alone.

According to the video from MSNBC, the animals can weigh more than 300 pounds, and are extremely intelligent and aggressive. They can get so massive that one Florida resident described their size as "short of a rhino" and another dubbed one she found in her backyard "Hogzilla."

The pigs have proven to be particularly destructive to residents' lawns. They usually do their mischief at night, when they wreak havoc on lawns, scavenging for acorns, worms, and mushrooms. They also disrupt native vegetation, making it easier for invasive plants to grow.

The problem has gotten so bad that the federal government is now involved. The USDA's proposed solution is not to eradicate the pig population, but rather to thin out the herd. They have allowed residents to shoot or trap the animals.

Florida is currently conducting hog hunts to diminish their pig population.

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Comments

[Patricia Russell]

10:55 PM on 01/14/2011

GO CRITTERS!!

[JacquesH]

01:33 PM on 01/12/2011

Florida is getting it from all sides as far as animals are concerned! Some even say that Burmese pythons are now a growing threat to Floridians, as originally reported in the New York Times and reproduced in WWP: http://www.worldweatherpost.com/2011/01/09/a-snake-invasion-debating-the-risks/

[dporterdvd]

07:39 PM on 01/11/2011

Seems like a shovel ready job to me. The government should hire people to turn most of those wild pigs into food for the poor of food for the military.

[flyn2hi]

12:38 AM on 01/11/2011

The US gov't needs to trap the babies, farm raise, feed and socialize them, and perhaps ship them to a place where they might really be of use and maybe even jump start the economy, like Haiti. We had no problem killing off their swine population, we should take this opportunity to give some of it back. I guess that make too much sense and be too much like right, but after this fiasco:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creole_Pig

It seems like this would be the fair, equitable thing to do AND considering the amount of wrong we have done to this country - it feels like it would be a step in the right direction.

[julieintx]

03:59 PM on 01/12/2011

It'd be far easier to ship them a few tame adults. They reproduce like rats.

[Beamreach]

10:48 PM on 01/09/2011

In Texas we say that there are two kinds of landowners in the state: those who have feral hogs on their property today and those who are about to have them. They sure make a mess, but boy are they tasty!

[Tierce]

01:52 PM on 01/09/2011

I used to have a couple of pigs. One was named Bacon, the other named Ham.

[Maverickpower]

12:39 PM on 01/09/2011

Free Pork for everyone !!! Their mean too , so it's "guilt free " hunting.

[Idaho Revolutionary]

12:25 PM on 01/09/2011

People do hunt these pigs. In fact it's very popular in states where they have any kind of a population. The problem is hunters can't keep up with them.

Not until we have commercial market for wild pig meat will you see a drop in population.

[Maverickpower]

12:38 PM on 01/09/2011

Idaho Revolutionary ! Nice ! Fanned just for the name !!

[jimboy71]

04:26 PM on 01/11/2011

Where do I sign up?

[CindyM272]

08:53 AM on 01/09/2011

...why are we still eating factory farm raised pork? Two birds, one stone.

[signgrrl]

10:43 AM on 01/09/2011

how would smithfield "farms" make any money then ? i'm sure they're paying someone to stay in business, given the horrific conditions there.

[marijam]

05:42 AM on 01/09/2011

They are supposed to be very tasty. Get some really good hunters out there to shoot those wild hogs then have a really big public BBQ.

[future primitive]

05:21 AM on 01/09/2011

Ribs, hamhocks, loin, chops. Not much bacon (too lean), Somebody call the Food Network. Convince diners this is fun alternative to domestic pork harvested from dirty, dangerous, unhealthy factory farms. Find some unemployed folks and give them licenses to hunt and sell them. They'll be hunted nearly to extinction. Two birds. One stone.

Nothing can manage a nuisance species quite so well as being tasty at the table.

[giono]

08:57 PM on 01/08/2011

The pigs outsmarted the trappers -- this must be Florida. This story should be posted in the Food section as well..

[pokemon]

07:57 PM on 01/08/2011

We have people starving in America and we are having problems trying to figure out what to do with them?

[Daisytoo]

09:12 PM on 01/08/2011

Apparently, feral pig meat can be pretty rank.

[OdinsEye]

12:32 AM on 01/09/2011

Depends on what they have been eating. If they are not getting into garbage, it can be pretty good.

[notalwaysfittoprint]

09:17 PM on 01/08/2011

Eating pork is not healthy!

[mrpossumtail]

06:31 AM on 01/09/2011

My wife's grandmother used lard three meals a day, fatback in all vegetable dishes, and some kind of pork meat in almost every meal. All of the pork consumed came from their farm. She lived until she was 93.

[40s]

06:07 PM on 01/08/2011

Shouldn't everyone be up in arms about protecting the feral hogs--in the same manner many get emotionally incoherent about protecting "wild mustangs" (feral horses)?

[marijam]

05:43 AM on 01/09/2011

Not the same thing. Not the same thing at all. Feral hogs will attack humans. I've never heard of a wild mustang attacking a human.

[sitycent]

07:25 AM on 01/09/2011

Hogwash, it's exactly the same thing. We have plenty of them here, in Alabama and I defy you to go into the woods and get one to attack you. They run away like rabbits if you get anywhere near them.

[jpvt]

05:08 PM on 01/08/2011

Forty years ago, while staying over with friends in a canyon in Big Sur, I asked in the AM what the noises were that I heard in the night and was told they were the foraging wild pigs. I thought that was quite exotic and was hoping to see one. After this article I've changed my mind and only hope they don't make it to the Northeast.

[OdinsEye]

05:20 PM on 01/08/2011

Too late

[jpvt]

09:15 PM on 01/08/2011

You mean they're here?????? I never should have wished for such a thing.