Elk, bear, antelope and turkey there has always been plenty of fine game to hunt in New Mexico. But not without limitation.
Feral pigs on the other hand can be hunted without a license, year round, with any legal sporting gun. In fact there is no restriction on the number feral pigs you can hunt and kill in New Mexico.
Otero County pig trapper Lewis Reeves says that is the reason hunters started trying to build up a feral pig hunting population in New Mexico.
“They all want to shoot a big pig they want that head off there with the big tushies, to take home and mount or whatever a lot of them want to shoot one to eat everyone wants me to give one of them that I have taken out” he says.
40 or so years since they started being released into the wild the feral pig population has swelled to the point that in places like Otero County the animals threaten critical wildlife, native plants and put the livestock at risk of serious diseases and infection.
“A big thing in this country is the disease that they carry that transmit to the cattle the dear and the elk” he says.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASWYzDlVckU&feature=youtu.be
With the lack state limits on hunting feral pigs why hasn’t the feral pig problem taken care of itself?
Otero County pig trapper Lewis Reeves says hunting is actually making the problem worse. He says firing into groups of pigs splits them up and makes them even harder to find and trap.
"Everybody and his dog is wanting to shoot a pig and if you shoot into these pigs they’ll move and they’ll move a long ways and they will do it overnight it helps me if people will just report them" he says
"Trapping takes out more pigs than hunting does” he says.
When it comes to hunting, Otero County has some of the best game the state has to offer and hunters take advantage of it 9 months out of the year.
Otero County Cattle Ranchers Association President Gary Stone says he wants New Mexico Game and Fish to change the lengths of hunting seasons so the county can have more time to get a handle on the feral pig problem.
“We need some more cooperation from the game and fish they need to give us a bigger window to where these pigs can bunch back up” he says.
The same serious and even deadly diseases that can be transmitted to livestock are also transmittable to game and wildlife. As a result Stone says Game and Fish should be funding eradication programs.
“The New Mexico Department of game and fish that collect a lot of revenue from the wild life that is out there if any of these diseases come through to their wild life it like I said it will be a catastrophic event" he says.
Mark Madsen is New Mexico Game and Fish Southeast Regional Spokesperson. He says they’ve partnered with the USDA and Wildlife Services and provided funding to combat the feral pig problem in years prior.
“The biggest thing, reason it has tapered off is because wildlife services has been very successful as far as their aerial gunning efforts they have killed I think the last number I saw was between 7 and 800 feral hogs” he says.
The USDA has continued that program. But pig trapper Lewis Reeves says the USDA’s eradication techniques have not done a lot to cull the feral pig population in Otero County.
“They do fly their helicopter every one and a while but in these high mountains and this much brush and timber we got, it helicopter don’t work real good” he says.
Though game are almost as susceptible as livestock to serious diseases spread by feral pigs – The damage and liability of an outbreak would weigh far more heavily on the livestock industry.
New Mexico Game and Fish spokesperson Mark Masden says although the diseases are a concern, the feral pigs do not fall under his agency’s jurisdiction.
“For wild life species as long the meat is properly cooked and stuff like that, then there is very little risk of any diseases being transmitted to humans" he says.
Pig trapper Reeves says Otero County is one of the hardest hit in the state, and he says they will need grants and other funding to continue eradicating feral pigs.