Pig Bomb

gsim

Songster
10 Years
Jun 18, 2009
1,997
52
196
East Tennessee
Recently on discovery channel they ran a segment called 'Pig Bomb'. It documented the explosive growth of feral pigs in N America and Europe. It is even worse over in Europe than here. But here, it supposedly went from 9 states in the 1990's to 40 states today. Much of that was man-made to make them available for hunting. They are terribly destructive and some are really gigantic. An employee of our local Tractor Supply told me when he lived in S Carolina that he and a friend killed one that dressed out just above 700 lbs. They showed two on the TV show that were supposed to be 1100 lbs when shot.
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I keep on reading the posts on preds and have yet to see one involving a wild pig invading a run or coop. Seems they are too shy of man to come too close to where we live so far. I am wondering if anyone on this forum has ever heard of a poultry predator incident involving a wild hog. They are so powerful that they would wreck a lot of backyard runs in short order, almost as bad as a black bear.
 
I have a co-worker who had all his chickens killed by feral pigs he traps and raises. The pigs would push feed up to the fence. When the chickens came to help themselves to some pig feed the pig would snatch and eat it.
 
I don't know where the thread went, but we had a lot of info discussed on that show. I had somebody from the Michigan DNR contact me after inquiring for more information on it. In michigan, feral hogs are open season, no limit.
 
I noticed on the segment I was watching that when dogs were called in they were always pit bulls. Two of them would take down a 400 lb porker real quick too. They had some protection like a heavy vest on some of the dogs beginning right behind the front leg/shoulder and covering back to the hindquarters. One brave dog grabs the snout and the other one grabs a hind leg.These pigs have longer legs than domestic hogs do and are really quite fast. I cannot imagine hunting them without dogs to help detect them. Really dangerous to blunder into a thicket with one in there that is scared or has piglets.

A man they interviewed says one crashed thru his front door one night and dove on to him and started after his legs. He was sitting on his sofa when it happened. He got eat up pretty bad and had to call for help, but the thing went away luckily for him. Man I know said he has helped breed them in captivity to produce pork and that in 2 generations you will breed a domestic looking hog from one of those and a domestic hog. Hard to believe for me. He said the meat is so tough that it is only fit for grinding into sausage.
 
I was just recently wondering about this also. We live in the country and one was seen just about 100 yards from my property. I know they eat meat and was wondering if the would bother my chickens. I would have no chance coop or run wise if they did want in. It is strong enough to keep dogs and other things out but I am sure a feral hog could break into it fairly easy since they are so strong.
I hope they don't decide to come any closer, I have a shot gun but I think I would be so scared, I would just wound it and make it mad enough to come after me.
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