Big Bad Hog

Please publish this and send me a copy

Symposium attendees rallied around the idea of creating a campaign to convince state lawmakers to enter the fight against feral hogs. Randy Lanctot, retired executive director of the Louisiana Wildlife Federation, proposed the creation of a picture book, “Big Bad Hog,” to illustrate the problem to legislators.

The title sounds fitting for a SyFy movie, but there’s nothing funny about the plot to Lanctot.

“We need to show this animal in a very negative light to the decision-makers,” he said. “They need to see that this is a bad animal.”

For now, they're just trying to put out hog poison.  But the hogs are too smart to eat it.  As long as it doesn't render the animals inedible I'm ok with it. Sometimes we manage to get a hold of some.

Update: Not waiting for the sanctions to take effect, Jefferson Parish snaps into action.

A half million wild pigs are roaming Louisiana, and there have been few predators to curtail their numbers -- until now. Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office sharpshooters will take on the porcine population soon, to stem the animals' damage to the West Bank's hurricane protection levees.

Sheriff Newell Normand signed a cooperative endeavor agreement Aug. 29 to send deputies out for hog eradication. The sheriff and Susan Maclay, president of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-West will soon discuss the arrangement in a news media event, officials said.

The state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries has added feral hogs to the Sheriff's Office permit for nuisance animals, said the flood authority's regional director. The first hunt will take place no later than Oct. 1, he said.