Syracuse.com - Some say it may be time to ban captive wild boar hunts

[HuntingNY-News]

The latest development in the wild boar war in Central New York just might be passage of a law banning captive boar hunts.

Submitted photoWendy Cosselman, of Bleecker, shot this Russian boar last year at Wild West Trophy Hunts, a private hunting preserve in Chenango CountyThe latest development in the wild boar war in Central New York just might be passage of a law banning captive boar hunts.

State Department of Environmental Conservation officials, faced with little or no money to trap and kill the ever-increasing population of Russian wild boars in this area and across New York in general, are looking at their source.

“Stopping escapes (from private hunting preserves) is the biggest and most important issue we’re challenged with,” Gordon Batcheller, head of the DEC’s Bureau of Wildlife, told The Associated Press last week.

“It might require legislation so we can shut down the source of these animals before they get on the landscape,” he said.

Currently, there are several pay-to-hunt, fenced-in, private preserves in Central New York that offer Russian wild boar hunts to the public, along with their offerings of other trophy and exotic animals such as elk, bison and red stags. Also, developer Robert Congel, owner of the Carousal Center, offers wild boar hunts to his guests as part of the extensive fishing and hunting opportunities at his wildlife preserve at Savannah Dhu in Wayne County.

Feral swine, which can weigh more than 400 pounds, are breeding in the wild in Cortland, Onondaga and Tioga counties, according to a $230,000 federal study completed last year. Batcheller and others have estimated that the local population is in the hundreds. Some were recently spotted in the Adirondacks.

It’s no coincidence that where wild boar are found in the wild, a private hunting preserve is nearby, officials said.

Wildlife experts point out that these animals multiply rapidly, with sows producing several litters a year of four to six piglets. They’re also wily and mostly nocturnal, making it difficult for people to hunt or trap them.

More important, these animals are intelligent and adaptable. They dig up croplands. They damage ecosystems by rooting and digging for food, and they compete with native wildlife for food, devouring roots, stems, leaves, fruit, nuts, bark, birds eggs, mice, snakes, baby turkeys, fawns and road kill. In addition, they carry diseases that can be transferred to wildlife and domestic animals, and destroy wetlands by their wallowing.

A number of states have banned captive wild boar hunts as a first step in controlling the wild population, including Michigan, which has a boar population estimated at 2,000 to 7,000, The Associated Press reported. Michigan wildlife experts noticed that boar started showing up in the wild soon after hunting preserves began bringing them in.

“We’re not talking about Porky Pig getting loose from the farm,” said Patrick Rusz, director of wildlife programs for the Michigan Wildlife Conservancy. “These are wild boars. These animals are Houdini-like escape artists and they breed readily in the wild.”

Officials at the DEC and the state’s Department of Agriculture and Markets said wild boars are being brought into this state for hunting with little regulatory control

“Unfortunately this industry remains poorly regulated and even more poorly monitored,” said Steve Joule, the DEC’s Region 7 wildlife manager. “The paucity of laws and regulations, coupled with a lack of oversight or monitoring of the hunting preserve and livestock industries (transport of hogs in particular) is a large part (perhaps the largest part) of the feral hog problem.”

Michael Moran, a spokesman for the state Department of Agriculture and Markets, added: “The only authority we have over wild boar brought into this state for hunting purposes is whether they were legally imported into the state. We check to make sure they have the proper health certifications. We have no regulatory authority over the breeding of such animals.”

Neither the DEC, nor the state Ag Department, has a readily available list of places that offer wild boar hunts. Checking the Internet and calling around revealed several within a short drive of Syracuse: Cold Brook Hunts in Homer, Big Boar Lodge in Sempronius and Wild West Trophy Hunts in Columbus, Chenango County.

Cindy Mikalunas, co-owner of Wild West Trophy Hunts, said her hunting preserve has been offering wild boar hunts since they opened in 2005, but currently has no boar on the premises. Told about Batcheller’s comment, she responded: “Like anything else, there are people who do things right and people who do things the lazy way and their boars get out.”

She said the boars at her preserve, which generally run from 200 to 250 pounds, are kept in by special fences that include “hog panels,” which are buried about three feet in the ground.

“We’ve never had a problem or an escape,” she said. She suggested state officials should put their emphasis on demanding proper fencing for boars on preserves.

George Deak, a spokesman for Hidden Valley Outdoors, a safari park in West Winfield, south of Utica, said Batcheller’s comment is “short-sighted.”

Prior to his arrival, Hidden Valley offered wild boar hunts. Today, the park has 10 boar in a 40-acre fenced-in area, which includes an inner perimeter of electric fence. The animals are there for viewing purposes only.

The fence’s “integrity” is checked twice a day, Deak said. He says he’s had no escapes.

“You could require that all male pigs be castrated so they couldn’t reproduce,” he said. “There’s ways to attack this without affecting the industry and costing jobs.”

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog

[SteveB]

“There’s ways to attack this without affecting the industry and costing jobs.”

Hopefully they will be smart enough to consider them.

[5.9cummins]

Hopefully they will be smart enough to consider them.

Yes it will suck if jobs are affected by it. That being said the amount of damage these things do far outweighs the benefit.

I know a guy through work that went down to Texas to hunt them at a friends place. When he got there he was told buy a guy in the airport that he could come to his place and shoot all he wanted. He would even put him up and feed him.

At his buddies place he was expecting a challenge, he brought his rifle and as soon as he got there he wanted to get out. The guys said that he had to be patient and he would get to shoot some hogs. About dusk a bunch of trucks pulled in filled with guys. Everyone jumped out and started loading two trucks with shotguns and buckets of buck shot. One truck filled with guys (cab and bed) went to the end of a peanut field with a fence running along the edge down to a funnel where they were at. He was told whatever you do just don't stop shooting.

The other truck with the drive passenger with a 12ga, and two guys in the bed each with a 12ga went to the other end of the field. A few minutes later he herd the engine rev a couple times the headlights and lights on the roll bar were flipped on and the truck tore off across the field.

He said it looked like the entire field was moving there were so many pigs pushed through the funnel.

As the one woman in the article put it "there are people who do things right and people who do things the lazy way" and they are the ones who will end up screwing for everyone. I would say the other guy talking about castration hit it on the head. It doesn't matter what type of containment you have fences, electrified, hog panels, that's all nice and good but what happens when the next Irene or whatever comes through and washes out half the fence with no electricity and drops 3 dozen trees on the fence.

Unfortunately i font think any of it matters at this point. There has been to many introductions between CNY, the southern tier, now the ADKs and across the border in PA. Its only a matter of time before this becomes a wide spread problem for all NY'ers, hunters and our wildlife and ecosystems.

As for controlling them DEC has been slashed to the point i don't think they have the resources let to try and handle it. And from the last report i heard US Fish and Wildlife is getting gutted so we wont see anything from them.

I would put it like i do with the situation with coyotes. Guys bitch, piss and moan about coyotes killing deer but they don't hunt them. I think these are going to be the same type of issue only on a larger scale.

[SteveB]

This ain't Texas

[fasteddie]

Quote from the original post

"Cindy Mikalunas, co-owner of Wild West Trophy Hunts, said her hunting preserve has been offering wild boar hunts since they opened in 2005, but currently has no boar on the premises. "

No sha-zit ! They probably all got loose .........

[5.9cummins]

This ain't Texas

And your point being?

[SteveB]

Point being is as far as I know, no latititude as far north as NY has had a hog population become the type of problem that they can and have become in the the hotter southern climates that allow year round production of huge litters. They have been reported in the Cortland/Homer ( I live and hunt 10 miles from there) area for going on 10 years and seeing one, let alone shooting it is still extremely rare. There appears to be a small sustaining breeding population, but have come no where close to being a problem. No one I know of can target them and even count on even finding sign. Point is using Texas to anticipate a huge problem here has proven to be ineffective.

[sits in trees]

Point being is as far as I know, no latititude as far north as NY has had a hog population become the type of problem that they can and have become in the the hotter southern climates that allow year round production of huge litters. They have been reported in the Cortland/Homer ( I live and hunt 10 miles from there) area for going on 10 years and seeing one, let alone shooting it is still extremely rare. There appears to be a small sustaining breeding population, but have come no where close to being a problem. No one I know of can target them and even count on even finding sign. Point is using Texas to anticipate a huge problem here has proven to be ineffective.

if you look at any northern region on the planet you wont find a hog problem, just because Texas cant control their hog population doesnt mean evry state that has small numbers of wild hogs is going to be over run. their are thousands of species that thrive in a state like Texas that wouldnt stand a chance up here in our sub zero winter temps...heck the very country that gave us the wild hog doesnt have a population problem...

maybe its just that nasty species just seem to thrive in texas.

Edited September 14, 2011 by sits in trees