Texas Community Hires Consultant to Fight Feral Hog Problem
by: Jennifer Shike
Residents in The Woodlands Township, located near Houston, Texas, are getting serious about feral hog removal in their neighborhood.
On Wednesday, The Woodlands Township approved the hiring of a special consultant to devise a strategy to reduce the feral hog population, KHOU 11 TV reports.
The consultant will be paid $25,000 to help protect this booming community and the Spring Creek watershed that’s been serving as a “hog highway,” driving the feral pigs into the yards of residents along this path. Residents have even spotted feral hogs when children are standing at bus stops.
This decision comes not long after the death of Christine Rollins, who was killed by feral hogs outside of the home of a couple she provided care for in rural Anahuac, Texas.
John Powers, the assistant general manager for The Woodlands Township, told KHOU that he understands the fear and frustration. It’s a very active community and safety is paramount for residents.
Currently, wildlife recovery businesses are putting out traps along Spring Creek. One of these businesses told KHOU that they put out four feral hog traps in the Spring Creek area in 2019 and caught 171 feral hogs. The Woodlands then pays to send the feral hogs to a processing facility.
On Friday, Montgomery County Precinct 3 Commissioner James Noack announced he contracted with a professional wildlife removal company in order to trap feral hogs in targeted areas along Spring Creek for the next 90 days, KHOU II reports. The three-month program will cost $14,500.
The wild pig population in Texas ranges between 3 to 5 million pigs. And that’s a conservative estimate, said John Tomecek, assistant professor and wildlife specialist with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, in a December 2018 article on PorkBusiness.com. Wildlife experts believe 70 to 75% of the feral hog population must be eradicated each year just to keep up with the pigs’ prolific reproduction rate, KHOU reports.
In December, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension joined with local law enforcement on Wednesday night to shoot and kill wild hogs in Double Bayou Park, a large forested area about 60 miles east of downtown Houston.
