Wayward pigs are causing issues in some parts of Connecticut – and it’s become enough of an issue that state lawmakers are looking into how to deal with it.
The legislature’s environmental committee on Friday heard testimony on how much trouble roaming swine can cause. The committee is considering a bill to form a task force focused on roaming livestock.
“The last thing that we want in Connecticut is a population of feral pigs,” State Rep. Doug Dubitsky said. “They’re incredibly destructive, they’re very dangerous, they can run 30 miles an hour, they can be 6 or 700 pounds. They can kill you and they will eat you. It’s pretty nasty.”
State Sen. Heather Somers says bands of pigs are roaming her eastern Connecticut district, causing tens of thousands of dollars in damages to crops and lawns. She says the pigs are biting and chasing farmers.
“We have this continual problem,” Somers said. “Myself and another representative faced literally 60 farmers that were really unhappy about what’s happening. I don’t want to say farmers with pitchforks, but that’s sort of the idea.”
Somers says pigs are escaping farms and having offspring in the wild, and there isn’t a cut and dry way to legally deal with the problem. She’s advocating for a bill that would create a task force to study solutions.
In Texas, where feral pigs are a longtime problem, researchers estimate each pig causes upwards of $300 in damages per year.
State Rep. Francis Cooley says the issue is an urgent one.
“They essentially breed like rabbits and they’re incredibly elusive, and the amount of ecological damage they can do is phenomenal,” Cooley said.
