State Wildlife Agencies to Hold Public Forum on Wild Pigs in California
CDFW file photo of wild pig.
Press release from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW):
Due to ongoing concerns with wild pigs in California and the damage they cause, the California Fish and Game Commission and California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) will be holding a virtual public forum to discuss related issues and explore potential solutions that address and reduce problems.
The forum is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 22, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and will be available to the public via Zoom link. Everyone interested in participating in this important conversation should visit the Commission website (fgc.ca.gov/meetings/2022) to learn how to join the forum.”
“The Commission and CDFW have heard and understand public concerns about wild pigs in California,” said Vice President Erika Zavaleta, Chair of the Commission’s Wildlife Resources Committee. “Living with non-native, invasive species such as wild pigs can be a challenge for people and other wildlife. This forum is a chance to learn more about those challenges and discuss how we can collectively address that reality.”
This public opportunity is intended to elicit a broader discussion about wild pigs in California by presenting a scientific framework that supports open and respectful discussion, educating one another about wild pig issues and vetting potential solutions with various experts in the field. Adaptive and integrated strategies will be necessary to address concerns.
“One of the great things about the state of California is the abundance of open areas, natural habitat and diverse wildlife,” said CDFW Wildlife Branch Chief Scott Gardner. “But some non-native species, when introduced, can become prolific and destructive over time. We are looking forward to having a meaningful dialogue with residents, hunters and anyone who has an interest in – or concerns about – wild pigs in our state, so we can work together on strategies to mitigate some of the problems.”
The forum will include two panel discussions, with one focused on issues and concerns associated with wild pigs in California (including animal health, wildlife health, ecosystem health and economic impacts) and the second focused on potential solutions to the identified issues.
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It thought they were talking about the democrats! Lmao!
Maybe if they want them gone, they should quit being so greedy and stop charging people $80 for the first pig and $25 each after that.
The tag prices are out of control. $80.00 for one pig is just jackass crazy!
They give the cats and bears on the ranch something to eat besides deer. We eliminated them in the 70s with a shoot and leave policy,great fun for a 12 year old with an M1 carbine.
Why do humans enjoy killing so much?
Shit- I didn’t know there was a fee! People have shot them on my ridge and we are thankful as they really tear up the riparian zones…When we eat them we call it eco-pork! There’s an $80 fee for shooting them on your own land?! Another CA hands-in-your-pocket takeover of rural people. I knew the season was open all year with no limit- or did they change that too? I love animals and the wild pigs are smart and cool but they wreak environmental havoc and must go….kinda like most humans ha ha!
Careful eating them, I know folks who found that the pigs had torn up a septic field and were rolling literally in the neighbors poo and seemed to be eating things from said area. They were warned to not eat those pigs. You never know what theyve eaten.
Right now the bears are suffering immensely, thats why theyre in neighborhoods.
Too bad we cant get some dead pig meat to them!!
I think your store-bought bacon makers spend their lives wallowing in the same.
All year, no limit. But you gotta pay…
What I don’t get is why the tags, stamps, and fees keep going up every year or two. If you’re running an organization (CDFW) year after year, shouldn’t you be working to make things more efficient and streamlined, thus reducing costs? Somebody is fucking up. And since the whole legal cannabis snafu started, they are extorting $5,000 out of every license holder they can, so they are bringing in even more money.
I always ask the person at the counter in a jovial tone if the prices are going to go down next year and why they keep going up. Then they get all pissy with me and act like I’m some kind of jerk.
I used to like game wardens, I actually wanted to be one when I was a kid. As a life long hunter/fisherman I care immensely about animals and the environment! Breaks my heart to see things like whats happening on the Klamath river and other habitat destruction. But over the last few years I have lost nearly all my respect for CDFW.
Hi Farce, been looking for somebody tired of pigs and if you want someone to hunt your land please contact me. Fees got crazy in the USA so i rather hunt them in Argentina where farmers appreciate the meat and the advantage this does to their farms.
We shoot and trap down there but here is different. Thank you.
Wild pigs are infested with mange.
It is very contagious.
Fish and Game needs to address that!
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4675569/
These animals have been introduced, and they do not belong in the ecosystem.
They are a non native species, and they need to be eliminated.
Exterminated, preferably, as far as I am concerned.
Hunting guides have released these filthy destructive animals for profit, that wander onto and destroy other people’s property, and they should be held liable.
Fish and game should not be allowed to profit off of these disgusting animals.
These animals should be treated like the swine that they are, and mercilessly annihilated, no license or tag fees involved.
There should be a bounty on them, actually.
Rant over.
Agreed, Bounty!
Ok a couple things: first, pigs have gotten loose since settlers brought them here. An old timer who homesteaded here before crawler tractors, told me about when he was fourteen, fed up watching the place, he turned the hogs loose in the corn, and took off. For fifty years.
Then CDFW doesn’t really profit off tags. And it doesn’t matter whether or not YOU find the animals disgusting or not!
I bet one of the biggest hurdles isn’t the price of tags, but that most pig action is out on private land. I got a buddy coming up Sunday to hunt pigs, problem is access to follow them all over the patchwork of private property.
One invasive problem leads to another…
Wow! Substitute “human” for “wild pig” in that rant and it works too!
Humans are invasive.
Yes on the bounty idea. Likewise the turkeys that fly over our fences and tear up our gardens, another non-native invasive species. Pigs were not native to the Americas and wiped out millions of indigenous people by spreading disease and destroying crops and ecosystems. Bounty of $25/head until they are gone.
These types of gov’t “public forums” tend to be a sham, since they do what they want regardless of public sentiment. Defund the CDFW?
https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/wildlifedamage/operational-activities/feral-swine/feral-swine-damage/feral-swine-risks-pets-people
https://www.thepigsite.com/disease-guide/sarcoptic-mange-mites-sarcoptes-scabiei#:~:text=Mange%20is%20a%20parasitic%20disease,the%20skin%20which%20becomes%20unsightly.
Mange is a parasitic disease of the skin caused by one of two mites either Sarcoptes scabiei or Demodex phylloides. Sarcoptic mange (sometimes called scabies) is by far the most common and important because it is irritant and uncomfortable for the pig, causing it to rub and damage the skin which becomes unsightly. It significantly depresses growth rate and feed efficiency. Mange is widespread across countries with up to 60% of national herds affected.
Just say NO to cannibalism …
I’d like to see something done about the cows on the river beds. Haven’t been able to swim in our swimming holes due to the large concentration of cows literally living along the river in the eel river canyon area. Manure all over in the water and the sand. Completely destroy our pristine environment causing even more algae to bloom.
No shit! I can’t have my cannabis dry shed within 50 ft of the tiny seasonal watercourse because it supposedly has a potential to negatively impact the watercourse. Meanwhile my neighbors cows walk through, shit in, and erode the banks of the watercourse. We are in the headwaters of a large creek. His cows have free reign to shit into 6 different class lll watercourses that all run together and form a creek.
They aren’t supposed to be there. Ranchers get welfare (grants) to fence off cows from getting into streams and rivers. Grant monies are received, fences and gates installed, then ranchers team then allow cattle back in the streams…. because installing more water systems/additional locations are expensive.
Cows are always in season… no tags yeat!!!
What are you advocating? Eating migrants!? Who’s gonna prep the tables, do the dishes, mow the lawns? It’s not fair to blame Donald Trump for the border crisis, just because he spent so much time saying how easy it was to get across, then Biden goes and spends more on border security…
I just found this…
It’s a start, and would make the releasing of pigs into unconfined areas illegal…
I’m still pissed at the local guide that released pigs locally…
He’s a good guy, and I like him and respect him a lot, otherwise.🤷♂️
Newsom better do the right thing and pass this…
It just needs a provision for a bounty, now…
It’s support has been unanimous so far, with the exception of Scott Weiner, who abstained.
https://californiaglobe.com/articles/wild-pig-hunting-and-control-bill-passes-assembly-senate/
Senate Bill 856, authored by Senator Bill Dodd (D-Napa), would move provisions making wild pigs an exotic species rather than a game species. While SB 856 would not allow wild pigs to be controlled by poison anymore, the pig tag requirement for hunting would be changed to a $25 yearly resident validation, or a $90 yearly non-resident validation, allowing for unlimited wild pig kills starting in 2024, rather than the current tag limit. Non-resident hunting licenses would also see wild pigs be added to the animals allowed to be hunted.
Other limits, such as setting certain number of kills based on gender of the pigs, would be removed, and would make it illegal to release any hog, boar, pig, or swine to live in a wild or feral state upon public or private land unless it is a contained hunting preserve. SB 856 would also end all state programs benefiting wild pigs beginning in July 2024, instead replacing them with hunting provisions to manage the pigs. Finally, the bill would would make it illegal to import swine into the state unless it is for slaughter or they have been given permission from the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
Senator Dodd wrote the bill earlier this year to combat the growing wild pig population in California, which has caused environmental, farm, and private property damage across California for years.
“Unfortunately, swelling numbers of wild pigs have become a major scourge on California wildlands, endangering sensitive habitats, farms, and other animals,” said Dodd earlier this year. “My bill will increase opportunities to hunt them and do so more economically so that we may bring our pig population under control.”
🐖🐗🐷🐽
Spam alert!??
That’s kind of funny on this article…
Maybe it’s your “porcine” favorable opinion that doesn’t matter, Barry Bass boat?
I don’t seem to be the only one that detests feral pigs…
This article does even mention mange…
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/feral-pigs-california-destroy-property-endanger-humans-time-stamp-them-ncna1288772
‘Feral pigs in California destroy property and endanger humans. Time to stamp them out.’
“Irresponsible hunters who moved captive pigs from one state to another may be behind several isolated populations that now exist hundreds of miles apart.”
“And as an invasive species, they harm native species by taking food and habitat away from them, while their habit of wallowing in water causes erosion on stream banks. To make things worse, wild pigs can transmit pathogens like salmonella and E. coli to whatever is downstream, including people.”
“Those earlier animal enthusiasts might not have realized the damage they were doing. But more recently, irresponsible hunters who intentionally moved captive pigs from one state to another may be behind several isolated populations that now exist hundreds of miles apart.”
“It’s important that these new laws and eradication efforts are accompanied by public outreach to hunters and the general public about invasive species and why it’s important to get rid of them. That way hunters and nonhunters alike will know not just why they shouldn’t release feral pigs into the wild, but also how to alert authorities if they spot them. Everyone needs to be involved in saying, “Th-th-that’s all, folks,” to wild pigs.”
Barry was replying to a comment from someone else that I deleted.
Thanks, I caught that.
My comment is a bit out of place, but it was actually a follow up comment to our previous ongoing “conversation”.
(“I thought the comment that you deleted was a little overboard, too…)🙂
Problem with wild pigs? Make it an open season year-round. Allow the hunters to obtain one tag say for $5.00 that will permit them to shoot as many pigs as they want all year. Lots of people eat these pigs which is fine. The ones they don’t want could be given to food shelters, friends, etc.
Wild pigs are really delicious when prepared properly, at about eight pounds. Considering they breed like rabbits and seriously damage land, the tags should be free.
They should be free, but I put $5.00 to cover the cost of printing them so the CDFW does not have to spend money on them. You are not kidding when you say they breed like rabbits!
The CDFW picture looks as though it could be taken in the Fay Slough Wildlife Area next to Harper Motors. I see what looks a lot like the stand of eucalyptus trees on the west side of 101 at Brainard yard. Look that way to anyone else?
100% can relate to this situation. Have had herds of pigs up on the property rooting around on everything destroyed whole fields. Banged all the apples off of the trees. Broke all the water lines looking for water dump several thousand gallons down the hill to make a mud hole. Drive the dogs nuts for hours and all night. So many that we can’t even deal with them all keep in mind that. Yeah the tasselham can be really good if smoked at a low level Heat. Any movement forward in this non-native species for eradication and management is welcome at this point.
Senate Bill 856 has been on Newsoms desk for 3 weeks.
How long does it take for it to be signed or vetoed?
It sure doesn’t seem like it should take 3 weeks, that’s for sure.
I will come remove as many as I can from your property if you would like?
If you ever consider that you need help with your pigs please contact me. Most of my pig hunting is done in Argentina (where farmers live by their crops) cause outfitters fees have gotten out of hand in the US. [email protected]