Fear of Porcine Menaces in America: Thank You Humans

Health Editor’s Note: So humans encouraged the appearance and the spread of feral pigs, those not raised in American feedlots and pig farms.  Americans thought it would be fun to hunt pigs…..an animal that is very intelligent, has the ability to communicate by using various sounds for different situations, and have a wide range of behavior patterns.  Pigs are not dirty animals. They do not have sweat glands thus they will roll around in mud/water to cool themselves off.  When a pig is placed into a confined space, it will choose one spot to eliminate in, thus keeping the rest of its space clean.  

Back to this hunting game that humans thought up…you know like the deer, elk, moose farms where “hunters” can go, pay a fee, and kill an animal which has not ability to escape beyond the high fences that surround the area where they have been fed and released. Do I need mention the pheasant farms where you can literally stumble over a pheasant that has been fed by humans, has no fear of humans, and this earns the pheasant the very likely chance that it will die by a gun shot. 

Here we have pigs that have gotten away from humans, have continued to thrive due to their intelligence, ability to find food, and apparent ability to adapt to living situations….Now we are supposed to be fearful of them?. Can I say “what goes around comes around”……Carol

Feral Pigs Are Invasive, Voracious and Resilient. They’re Also Spreading

by Brigit Katz/Smithsonianmag.com

How are feral pigs destructive? Let us count the ways.

They are invasive and cause millions of dollars in agricultural damage each year, rooting and trampling through a wide variety of crops. They prey on everything from rodents, to deer, to endangered loggerhead sea turtles, threatening to reduce the diversity of native species. They disrupt habitats. They damage archaeological sites. They are capable of transmitting diseases to domestic animals and humans. In November, a woman died in Texas after being attacked by feral hogs—a very rare, but not unprecedented occurrence.

Much of the country’s feral pig problem is concentrated in the South, where around half of the six million feral pigs in the United States live. But as Jim Robbins reports for the New York Times, these porcine menaces are spreading.

Part of the concern is that pigs are encroaching from Canada. This fall, Kianna Gardner of the Daily Inter Lake reported that multiple feral hog groups had been seen close to the border with Saskatchewan and Alberta, and eight pigs were spotted just above Lincoln County, Montana. State and federal officials are now monitoring the border, according to Robbins, planning to hunt the pigs from the air, ….Read More:

Carol Duff, MSN, BA, RN

Carol graduated from Riverside White Cross School of Nursing in Columbus, Ohio and received her diploma as a registered nurse. She attended Bowling Green State University where she received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in History and Literature. She attended the University of Toledo, College of Nursing, and received a Master’s of Nursing Science Degree as an Educator.

She has traveled extensively, is a photographer, and writes on medical issues. Carol has three children RJ, Katherine, and Stephen – one daughter-in-law; Katie – two granddaughters; Isabella Marianna and Zoe Olivia – and one grandson, Alexander Paul. She also shares her life with her husband Gordon Duff, many cats, and two rescues.

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