State hunters asked to take out feral hogs

The Associated Press

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- When it comes to killing off Missouri's wild hogs, conservation officials hope hunters will see the job not as a sport, but as a mission.

Voracious, wily and known to carry disease, feral hogs can be killed without a permit at any time of the year in Missouri. In fact, the Department of Conservation encourages hunters to pick them off during firearms seasons for deer and turkeys.

"I can't emphasize strongly enough we want these animals dead," said Bill Heatherly, wildlife protection supervisor for the agency. "We don't want people to hunt them; we want them to kill them."

In some states, feral hogs have been found to carry diseases that can be transmitted to humans and livestock. They're also suspected as the source of the recent E. coli outbreak in some spinach from California.

Feral hogs are domestic animals that go wild or are offspring of domestic hogs and Russian or European boars.

Killing a feral hog can be difficult. Boars and sows with piglets can be mean enough to force hunters to climb trees to escape them, officials said.

"They are a difficult animal to kill because they're real smart," Heatherly said.

If pigs know they're being hunted, they'll move out of an area and can even become nocturnal, he said.

Hogs wariness makes eradication efforts difficult because by the time a hunting team can come together, the animals usually have moved to another area, Heatherly said.

Feral hogs are threats because they are omnivorous.

"They'll compete with deer and turkey for acorns, and are known to eat deer fawns and turkey eggs," he said.

Martensen said herds of rooting hogs can also devastate sensitive environments, cause erosion and pollute water.

"It's just not a lot of good to have feral hogs in Missouri," he said.