Camo At The Capitol

Stop the hogs from going wild!

While I was in Washington this week to meet with Michigan members of Congress about Asian Carp, MUCC Executive Director Erin McDonough was busy here in Lansing working on another critical invasive species problem - feral swine. What Asian Carp could be to the Great Lakes ecosystem is what  feral swine could be to Michigan's wildlife habitats and agriculture industry. While the problem of feral swine is much less known that of the Asian Carp, feral swine is another invasive species that threatens to wreak havoc on Michigan's wildlife and harm our outdoor traditions.

The problem:  Feral swine pose serious disease issues for Michigan's native wildlife and humans. According to MUCC Wildlife Policy Advisor, Dr. Greg Peter, they're also considered "nomadic rototillers" that will cause serious harm to crops, landscapes, and wildlife habitat. Mitigating these problems is not cheap either.  According to the House Fiscal Agency in 2008, $415,000 was spent on depopulation of "game swine" at five hunting ranches and indemnification payments to ranch owners due to the discovery of the pseudorabies virus, which ultimately was confirmed in 19 captive sport swine at one facility and 5 feral swine found outside the boundaries of the facility. Unfortunately, ownership and responsibility for exotic swine escaped from established facilities often cannot be established because current law does not require these animals to be tagged with official, unique identification.

Feral swine in Michigan are a combination of free-ranging pigs that either (1) have been captured elsewhere and illegally released for the purpose of starting local wild, free-living populations; (2) are escaped or neglected domestic swine; and/or (3) are Eurasian wild boar that originated on farms, privately owned cervidae (POC) facilities, game ranches, wild game breeding facilities, and other enclosed hunting ranches.

To date, joint surveillance efforts by the DNRE, Michigan Department of Agriculture, and U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services indicate feral swine exist in 67 of Michigan's 83 counties. So if these animals are a nuisance invasive species, hunters should be allowed to shoot them if they encounter one in the woods, right? The answer is not so simple. Because domesticated swine and wild boar enclosed on game ranches are considered an agricultural product, they are not "wildlife," thus no law or regulation exists to make killing a feral swine legal. The DNRE has been able to work with 68 county prosecutors to legalize the killing of feral swine by a licensed hunter, but that leaves 16 counties where it is currently illegal. Click here to see a map to see which counties allow killing of feral swine.

The fix:  At the state capitol on Wednesday, McDonough and Dr. Peter provided testimony on legislation (House Bills 5822-5824) that would authorize a hunter with a valid hunting license, a local animal control officer, or a law enforcement officer to kill swine running at large on any public or private property. We're also working with State Rep. Barb Byrum (D-Onondaga) to sponsor an amendment declaring the feral swine as a public nuisance. The more our government and the general public thinks about these pigs as a problem, the better - we don't want Michigan's second largest industry (Agriculture) and a significant part of it's third largest industry (Hunting/Tourism) to become run over by an uncontrollable population of feral swine. There's a lesson to be learned from Texas.

This legislation is a good first step to create a uniform law so hunters will not be penalized for helping to control this invasive species, but much more needs to be done. Currently there is no regulatory oversight for over 40 breeding facilities and game ranches where wild boars are housed. A reduced threat of feral swine can be established by creating strong regulations for captive facilities that house wild boar in addition to significant penalties for violations. Hunters should not pay for this with restricted funds either - this should be a self-funded industry. No sportsmen's or general taxpayer's dollars should go towards regulating or enforcing these regulations or indemnifying owners for their losses. We look forward to working with Michigan's lawmakers to support House Bills 5822-24 in addition to its Senate counterpart (Senate Bill 1136), but will continue to press the urgency for stricter regulations on this invasive species.

Now get out there and put some bacon on the table.

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