In some states, such as Florida, wild hogs have become a nuisance. There are even commercial "hog exterminators" there you may have seen featured on the cable TV show called "Wild Hogs."
photo by USFWS
The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency wants to eradicate wild hogs from Tennessee, with the exception of their historic range in far East Tennessee on the Cherokee National Forest. Todd Raterman, an avid hog hunter from Overton County accuses TWRA of "using backdoor tactics" to pass the measure.
Steve Patrick, TWRA Asst. Director of Fields Operations said, "There's no backdoor tactics.... just poor communication skills."
In a recent TWRA news release announcing hunting season proposals for the upcoming Fall, TWRA said, "Wild hogs will no longer be considered a big game animal and will be allowed to be taken at select WMAs during deer hunts. Landowners would be given the ability to kill wild hogs by means not previously allowed. This includes all legal weapons and live trapping with bait outside of big game seasons."
What the news release did NOT say was that the specific goal is to eradicate hogs from Tennessee, and to do so, the public hog hunting season would be completely and permanently closed outside of a few selected wildlife management areas.
To some, such as Raterman, closing the hunting season for wild hogs in an effort to eridicate them seems completely backwards.
TWRA says that hunters have apparently started buying wild hogs from out-of-state sources, bringing them to Tennessee and releasing them.
"We're having hogs show up hundreds of miles from where they should be," said acting Law Enforcement Chief Steve Nifong.
"It's like little popcorn kernels going off," according to Patrick. "Hogs are appearing in isolated pockets literally hundreds of miles from their historic ranges."
Patrick estimates that there are now hog populations in at least 25 or 30 counties outside the historic ranges in East Tennessee and around Catoosa. And he lays the blame on hunters.
"That's the only incentive to do it (release them), is to hunt them. Otherwise they wouldn't be showing up," said Patrick.
Patrick says they are modeling their eradication effort after the State of Kansas. There they completely closed legal hog hunting, therefore without the ability to legally hunt them, hunters had no incentive to relocate hogs into their hunting areas.
Of course everyone knows that wild hogs are prolific little buggers, so how do you get rid of them where they already exist?
TWRA's plan is to only provide special permits to landowners. Those landowners will be allowed to designate ten people who will be allowed to use every trick in the book to rid the property of wild hogs. That means trapping, baiting, shooting them with spotlights at night.... virtually any means possible to kill every wild hog possible.
At the same time Patrick says the Agency is also making a specific effort to reduce hog populations on some wildlife management areas such as Catoosa.
"We're never going to be able to eliminate them but, yes, we're going to try and get the numbers down," said Patrick.
Raterman is on a one-man crusade the combat the effort. He says it is only a one-man crusade at this point "because no one else knows about it."
Raterman admits that perhaps hogs are showing up where they shouldn't be, but he says that is not the case where he lives in Overon County.
"TWRA is punishing the rest of us for the actions of a few," said Raterman. "I absolutely understand their concern (about people relocating hogs) and I'm concerned too. But I think they need to loosen the restrictions on hunting them rather than closing it down. Everybody who buys a (hunting) license should have that opportunity."
Since no special license is required, and hunters are not required to check-in harvested hogs, it is impossible to know how many hunters specifically target wild hogs. Raterman says, "In Overton County it's got to be in the hundreds. Across the state it's got to be a couple of thousand people each year."
Patrick won't guess at a number except to say, "Outside of their historic range most hog hunting is incidental to deer hunting. I don't think you've got many hunters that are going into the woods to hunt hogs."
While Patrick says they do intend to use every means to reduce the hog populations on several TWRA management areas, they will take no action whatsoever on South Cherokee... the historic origination point of the well known "Russian boar" or "razorbacks."
Wild hogs are not native to Tennessee, or anywhere else in the Eastern United States. They were imported here by Spanish expeditions, pioneers, rich aristocrats and a variety of others. Over the centuries escapees from various importations have gained a foothold. But with the exception of the population on South Cherokee, Patrick says they want to break that foothold.
"Everyone who's been in the woods or fields where wild hogs have rooted know how much damage they can do to the environment," said Patrick. "They also carry a variety of diseases that can be very dangerous to domestic hogs. The state Dept. of Agriculture is very concerned about that."
Under current law, the Tenn. Dept. of Agriculture is really the only agency that has regulatory authority over illegal importations. If the current TWRA proposal passes, TWRA could become more directly involved.
Nifong says along with the Dept. of Agriculture, they made a major "illegal importation" case in Hamilton County three years ago after they got a tip that someone was hauling 21 wild hogs from Florida for release. Nifong said of those 21 confiscated hogs, 19 of them carried some sort of disease.
Nifong admits however, that with such rare exceptions, enforcement is extremely difficult. The Agency believes that the only way to keep hunters from illegally "translocating" wild hogs is to make it illegal to hunt them .... except with special exceptions provided to landowners.
Raterman says he'll fight the measure tooth and nail.
Patrick says he doesn't believe there will be much objection to the measure.
"I think we will have some," he said. "But of the 200,000 (deer) hunters it's not going to be a very high percentage."
Raterman hopes he's wrong.
The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Commission is scheduled to vote on the matter at its next meeting on May 19-20 in Nashville at Ray Bell Office Building.
CLICK HERE for more details on hunting season proposals.