NY DEC: Hunting Or Trapping Of Wild Boars In New York Now Prohibited

[burmjohn]

A new regulation that prohibits hunting or trapping of free-ranging Eurasian boars in New York State was formally adopted state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Joe Martens announced today. The regulation is designed to ensure maximum effectiveness of DEC’s statewide eradication efforts.

 

“Enacting a statewide regulation was important to support DEC’s ongoing work to remove this invasive species from the state and to ensure that it does not become established in the wild anywhere in New York,” said Commissioner Martens.  “Eurasian boars are a great threat to natural resources, agricultural interests, and private property and public safety wherever they occur and DEC will continue to work to protect these resources and remove wild boars from the state.”

 

Eurasian boars were brought to North America centuries ago and wild populations numbering in the millions are now present across much of the southern U.S.  In recent years, wild boar populations have been appearing in more northern states too, often as a result of escapes from enclosed shooting facilities that offer “wild boar hunts.”

 

Governor Cuomo signed legislation on October 21, 2013, which immediately prohibited the importation, breeding or introduction to the wild of any Eurasian boars.  Furthermore, the law prohibits possession, sale, transport or marketing of live Eurasian boars as of September 1, 2015.  The new law was an essential step in the state’s efforts to prevent Eurasian boars from becoming established in the wild. 

 

However, there are already small numbers of Eurasian boars on the landscape in New York.  Since 2000, wild boars have been reported in many counties across the state, and breeding in the wild has been confirmed in at least six counties (Tioga, Cortland, Onondaga, Clinton, Sullivan and Delaware) in recent years.  DEC is working closely with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services program to remove any Eurasian boars that are reported in New York.   To date, more than 150 animals have been captured and destroyed.  However, eradication is expensive, time consuming and requires a great deal of manpower. 

“Hunters have offered to assist our efforts by hunting for boars wherever they occur, but experience has shown this to be counter-productive,” Martens said.  “As long as swine may be pursued by hunters, there is a potential conflict with our eradication efforts. Eurasian boars often join together to form a ‘sounder,’ the name for a group of pigs that can number 20 or more individuals.  Shooting individual boars as opportunities arise is ineffective as an eradication method often causes the remaining animals to disperse and be more difficult to remove.”

 

Hunters pursuing wild boars in locations where baited traps have been established by DEC or USDA can also undermine these costly and labor-intensive capture efforts.  Shooting may remove one or two animals, but the rest of the sounder scatters and rarely comes back together as a group, thereby hampering eradication efforts.  In addition to prohibiting take of free-ranging swine by hunters, the new regulation prohibits anyone from disturbing traps set for wild boars or otherwise interfering with Eurasian boar eradication activities.  Hunting wild boar is still allowed at enclosed hunting preserves until September 1, 2015.

The regulation does provide necessary exceptions for state and federal wildlife agencies, law enforcement agencies, and others who are authorized by DEC to take Eurasian boar to alleviate nuisance, property damage, or threats to public health or welfare.

 

Anyone who observes a Eurasian boar (dead or alive) in the wild in New York should report it as soon as possible to the nearest DEC regional wildlife office or to:  [email protected] and include “Eurasian boar” in the subject line.

 

Because it is sometimes difficult to distinguish a domestic pig, pot belly pig or Eurasian boar based solely on a description, reporting of all free-roaming swine is encouraged.  Please report the number of animals seen, whether any of them were piglets, the date, and the exact location (county, town, distance and direction from an intersection, nearest landmark, etc.). Photographs of the animals are especially helpful, so please try to get a picture and include it with your report.

 

Full text of the regulation can be viewed on DEC’s Weekly Environmental Notice Bulletin for April 23, 2014, available at http://www.dec.ny.gov/enb/95072.html. 

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[burmjohn]

Has anyone actually seen one in person in the woods?

[SteveB]

Yes - and I know of probably 15+ who have seen or shot one.

That said - still extremely rare and far from being something anyone could target.

All have been chance occurrences over several years. 

[Doc]

I honestly hope the DEC knows what it is doing. This is the first time I have ever heard of tackling the problem of an invasive species by putting full protection on them. It sounds a bit bold to me, and certainly counter-intuitive. On the other hand, if the DEC finds that they don't have the resources or the knowhow to handle eradication by themselves, and the population explodes, they will look like the world's biggest dummys for not having taken the route of using the willing army of hunters to help solve the problem.

 

I know the theory of what they are trying to do. The idea is to not disperse populations because of hunter pressure. I understand all that. But the fact is that now that they have chosen this unorthodox way of doing business, they damned-well better be right, and they damned-well better be up to the task.

[Meat Manager]

Has anyone actually seen one in person in the woods?

Never once and we are supposed to have them in spades here in 7j between Sempronius and Cold Brook.

I guess that's exactly the point...they are hard to hunt even with dogs and drives in this rugged/rolling terrain. Get the pros out there to take care of the problem en mass.

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Edited April 28, 2014 by Meat Manager

[hollerback1984]

Anyone know where there is a place to do this sounds like fun

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[shawnhu]

Anyone know where there is a place to do this sounds like fun

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Do what? Trapping or hunting boars? It's prohibited.

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[hollerback1984]

I'm talking about a hunting place that u can hunt them an pay for it

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[PREDATE]

Tioga, PA has a canned hunt if you're into that sort of thing

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[peepsight]

Does anyone know where there may be an update of how the DEC is doing with this? I couldn't find an update via their website.

[Steve D]

According to the 2016/2017 book page 34 there are no changes. Haven't heard if they are planning on doing anything

different in the future or not. Probably not on the high priority list.

[LJC]

I  am a  little skeptical  of studys that say these  wild pigs are bad . If  they are that bad how come lots. Of states have them and  still have  lots of deer and all the other native wildlife seems like they manage ok with them .

 

hunting and trapping would keep the population from ever  getting out of  control  plus who does not like  bacon lol  

Edited October 22, 2016 by LJC

[PREDATE]

I  am a  little skeptical  of studys that say these  wild pigs are bad . If  they are that bad how come lots. Of states have them and  still have  lots of deer and all the other native wildlife seems like they manage ok with them .
 
hunting and trapping would keep the population from ever  getting out of  control  plus who does not like  bacon lol  

Ever seen what a group of them will do to a crop field in a single night? Not pretty.
Now look into their reproduction rates, it's pretty wild.

[LJC]

5 minutes ago, PREDATE said:

Ever seen what a group of them will do to a crop field in a single night? Not pretty.
Now look into their reproduction rates, it's pretty wild.

Well I can tell you that they have alot of  them in Florida and the farmers  and deer other wildlife get along fine with them you can hunt them year round there that  keeps the numbers down .  Yea I know  they breed like pigs but with year round hunting it would  be hard for there numbers to really get out of control deer also create crop damage btw nothing new to a farmer they know what to do if that happens . I think the threat when managed by hunting and trapping would be very little . I mean man  has wiped out entire species with unregulated hunting and trapping I don't think pigs are any different.  We can control there numbers I believe. 

[PREDATE]

We MIGHT be able to control numbers of pigs, but I really don't see the DEC bumping up the number of ECOs to patrol the state of New York year round. Also, people like to enjoy the state lands, state parks, etc. in the warmer months. I doubt they want to worry about gunfire while they take a stroll on public land.

[Four Season Whitetail's]

This pig crap in Ny is a grasp at best.  They say how bad they are and how their numbers grow yet nobody ever see's any? Just another case of Ny at its finest.

[LJC]

43 minutes ago, PREDATE said:

We MIGHT be able to control numbers of pigs, but I really don't see the DEC bumping up the number of ECOs to patrol the state of New York year round. Also, people like to enjoy the state lands, state parks, etc. in the warmer months. I doubt they want to worry about gunfire while they take a stroll on public land.

You put   unlimited  hunting trapping in just the winter early spring months   I'm pretty sure that would keep the pig  numbers down to controllable levels . It's laughable that humans that made countless numbers of large game species go extinct by hunting  starting in the stone age cant  handle some pigs lol wolf's bison Mastodon giant  sloth  just to name a few  . Farmers on there own land  could get nuisance permits to hunt them all year round.  Managed  correctly by fish and game the population  would never get out of control.   Besides pigs are real tasty lol 

[LJC]

 NY law to make it illegal to kill them will probably  back fire but maybe that is  the point let them grow to uncontrolled levels then with that excuse let people hunt and trap them.  Could be   the real reason for the law .  You never no with the state . The may see it as a new source of income selling more hunting licenses. 

[PREDATE]

It's laughable that humans that made countless numbers of large game species go extinct by hunting  starting in the stone age cant  handle some pigs lol wolf's bison Mastodon giant  sloth  just to name a few  . Farmers on there own land  could get nuisance permits to hunt them all year round.

Then as with all hunting, we are confronted with the private land that is inaccessible. Just like deer, pigs will wisen up to hunting pressures and move to safe zones.

I like your enthusiasm, but we'd need every hunter and landowner on board otherwise there would be pockets of unmolested pigs all over the state.

[LJC]

3 hours ago, PREDATE said:

Then as with all hunting, we are confronted with the private land that is inaccessible. Just like deer, pigs will wisen up to hunting pressures and move to safe zones.

I like your enthusiasm, but we'd need every hunter and landowner on board otherwise there would be pockets of unmolested pigs all over the state.

So if that is the case why did the dec make it illegal to hunt them ?

All that's going to do is make it possible for what you just said to happen  much easier. (pockets of unmolested pigs all over the state.) Don't you think ? 

[PREDATE]

Their theory is that hunters like you and I would only complicate their efforts to trap them by spreading them out.
I do think that deer hunters should be able to take feral hogs during deer season, but I don't think there are very many(if any) running wild in NYS these days.

[growalot]

They made their reasons very clear...pressured pigs are educated pigs...harder to hunt or trap...Actual study done in the states that have them. To address crop damage...How much do you know about pigs? How much do you know about soil structure?

Now as far as population...I haven't heard ppl talking about seeing pig numbers growing. I'd have to assume that at first glance their initial plan worked. Top that of with some nasty sub zero ,lengthy sub zero, temps the last couple of winters...things may not be bad. I did not agree with the plan but hey if it worked...See I know what kind of nasty parasites and diseases that pigs are capable of transferring to live stock and humans...no thanks

Edited October 22, 2016 by growalot

[LJC]

50 minutes ago, growalot said:

They made their reasons very clear...pressured pigs are educated pigs...harder to hunt or trap...Actual study done in the states that have them. To address crop damage...How much do you know about pigs? How much do you know about soil structure?

Now as far as population...I haven't heard ppl talking about seeing pig numbers growing. I'd have to assume that at first glance their initial plan worked. Top that of with some nasty sub zero ,lengthy sub zero, temps the last couple of winters...things may not be bad. I did not agree with the plan but hey if it worked...See I know what kind of nasty parasites and diseases that pigs are capable of transferring to live stock and humans...no thanks

Well I'm just going by the fact they have them in europe naturally and they seem to be able to control them I dont see why in north America with are colder climate for the most part some pigs are going to be a problem to control.  I think the problem is overblown.  But I'm no expert just saying from  knowing they have them in europe where like here they killed off all the natural predators. And just control them with hunting and trapping.  And I'm  bias cuz I really love bacon lol more then deer meat .

And a good pig rust yummy lol I had  wild pig  down south  they taste just like the domestic ones delicious.

[phade]

I hope pigs never make it here permanently. No good comes of it.


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[LJC]

29 minutes ago, phade said:

I hope pigs never make it here permanently. No good comes of it.


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By making it illegal to hunt them its  up to the pigs if they can live here all year long seems like . Seems like they are living the decision up to the pigs lol