New Bill Would Provide More Opportunities To Hunt California Hogs

Wild pigs in a green field
(TIM E. HOVEY)

California’s year-round pig hunting opprtunities just might beome even more available to sportsmen and -women, says this Sacramento Bee report from Ryan Sabalow.

Wild pigs are considered invasive species, and per Sabalow, have created quite a mess with many in the Golden State. With much of the hunting chances for hogs on private land, a new assembly bill appears to allow more hunters to score a pig and allow farmers fed up with pesky wild hogs to help eradicate a species that habitate in nearly every county in the state.  Here’s more from the Bee’s Sabalow:

Cremers is advocating for Assembly Bill 2805, authored by Assemblyman Frank Bigelow, R-Madera, which would change the status of California’s wild pigs from a game species regulated similar to deer, elk and bear to a new category.

The change would allow farmers to kill pigs without a hunting license or what’s known as “depredation permits” — what the state’s wildlife agency normally issues when game animals damage property.

Bigelow’s bill “helps streamline the process to make sure it’s easier to try to deal with this nuisance,” said Tyler Blagg, whose family ranches several thousand acres in Nevada County on land that he says is overrun with feral hogs. Due to safety and other concerns, Blagg’s family does not allow recreational hunters on their lands.

Farmers like Blagg long have chafed at needing special permission from the state to kill a nonnative species they consider a pest, and they say recreational hunting alone does little to decrease the numbers.

It’s a really interesting read, including the idea that part of the new plan would see significant lower costs for hunters to have the proper documents to harvest hogs.