On the heels of a recent resounding win for bear hunting in California, a less-than-stellar wild pig hunting bill is currently with the state’s Senate Appropriations Committee.
According to a letter to the Senate Natural Resources committee signed by 11 California hunting groups, the bill would reduce valuable hunting opportunities, gut vital state-wide conservation funding that supports wildlife and habitat management, remove a source of important wildlife management data, and create a management nightmare for the Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW).
Bad Language, Bad Bill
Charles Whitwam, the founder of HOWL, a non-profit, action-oriented online portal dedicated to protecting wildlife and science-based management practices, told Free Range American he recognized the anti-hunting language in the bill right away.
“S.B. 856, as introduced by Sen. Bill Dodd, is a direct lift of a 2018 wild pig bill, authored by Sen. Frank Bigelow, that died in the Senate,” he said. “The original bill included anti-hunting language that Jennifer Fearing lobbied for on behalf of the Humane Society.”
That language was cut from the 2018 bill before the legislation ultimately failed, but it’s now back in Sen. Dodd’s bill:
This bill would also prohibit a person from intentionally or knowingly releasing any hog, boar, pig, or swine to live in a wild or feral state upon public or private land and would prohibit a person from engaging in, sponsoring, or assisting in the operation of a contained hunting preserve, as defined, of wild pig, feral pig, European wild boar, or domestic swine within this state. The bill would also prohibit the use of poison to take exotic game mammals.
Essentially, the bill would make fenced hunts illegal — a move that hunting groups say would hurt parts of the hunting community that should be supported and also set a dangerous legislative precedent.
“These hunts provide an opportunity to many, including our most deserving wounded warriors, those with special needs, the elderly, and youth who are physically unable to handle traditional hunts. For us, this is a ‘slippery slope’ as we can easily see planted upland game bird hunts next on the list,” the group’s letter pointed out.
In California, 52% of the state is public land; of that, 38.3%, or roughly 38.1 million acres, is open to public hunting.
Management, Data, and Revenue Red Flags
Another issue for hunters and wildlife managers pertains to the revenue from wild pig tags that would be lost by replacing them with a wild pig validation.
Current hunting regs require hunters to purchase a tag for every wild pig they kill with no limit on the number of tags purchased or pigs killed. Each resident tag costs $25.92 as of the 2021-2022 season. Non-resident wild pig tags are $86.97 per animal.
Under the new law, hunters would be able to purchase a single validation, akin to the duck stamp, which would allow the hunter to shoot as many wild pigs as they want. The cost would be $15 for residents and $50 for non-residents.
According to HOWL, that would add up to over $1 million in lost revenue, which would directly impact the annual funding available for programs and projects critical to the health of all big game species.
Under current law, property owners must obtain a depredation permit in order to kill nuisance pigs and then report their kills. The new bill would remove those requirements.
Two issues arise from this: a lack of permitting opens the door to the no-holds-barred killing of an indeterminant number of wild pigs and a possible increase in poaching incidents; without harvest numbers, the DFW will have little to no data for implementing science-based management of wild pigs.
It is true that there is no bag limit or daily possession limit on wild pigs, but unchecked hunting of wild animals has never resulted in favorable outcomes; ask the American Bison.
Pouring even more salt in the wound, the new bill would reclassify wild pigs as exotic game mammals, and ask the DFW to create a new management plan for them — something that Whitwam believes is an unreasonable ask.
“The bill requires the DFW to prepare a management plan for wild pigs no later than January of 2024, which is not feasible. Here in California, they’re already working on management plans for deer, black bears, bobcats, and wild sheep. They don’t need to be working on a wild pig management plan at the same time.”
HOWL has organized an action alert for the public to weigh in on the bill.
“If the goals of this legislation are a single validation instead of tag sales, and improved access to depredation hunting for landowners, this legislation needs to be gutted and improved — so it must be stopped in its current form,” the organization’s website says.
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to correct an error in the reported acreage of public land available to hunt in California.
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Michael Omer says
I find this article to lack an appropriate amount of creditability based on a lack of basic fact checking. If you believe that 38.3% of California equals 100,000 acres then 3rd largest state has shrunk to be only 39% of the size of Rhode Island the smallest state in the Union.
That type of unfathomably poor writing seems to scream ………..If you believe that I have some nice beach front property on the coast of Antarctica.
Rick Behrens says
Why can’t we ever get people in D C that will stand up for the biggest army the world has ever known, the American Hunters.
Randall Thomas says
Neanderthals!!
JESSE W QUILLEN says
I say go open season on the nasty things that destroying private property. Kill as many as are tearing up your property. Have a managed tag system just as deer hunts do on public land. These things repopulate at a alarming rate. Loosen regulations not tighten or restrict the access for handicap.
Nathan A Bibb says
Most of the pigs are on private property that are owned by rich ranchers that don’t allow hunting on there property ,the pigs are smart enough to stay off public land ,hunting public land is a waste of time ,fuel and energy .Hogs will continue to breed cuz they can hide on private property it’s all bullshit if u ask me .
Benjamin jergens says
Please leave pig hunting along.
Allyn Thompson says
The state of California is 104 million acres. If 38 percent of that is public that’s 39 million acres of land, not less than 100,000
John says
Are we worried that introduced pigs are invasive and hurting other native species or are we worried that the lost of revenue will hurt the private hunting clubs and the state?
Its science right? So is the pocket book more important or the science of invasive species destroying the eco system and native species more important. Get rid of these stupid lobbyist
cliff shirley says
Kill them all. Eat them all.
Joseph Bernardo says
You think the homeless is bad wait till this bill hits the streets. You guys are stupid in California. What a bunch of dummies. The hogs will bust out and there will be nothing the idiots can do.
Cowboy says
Wild hogs don’t need any regulation. A female can have 9 babies up to 3 times on a good yr. After reaching 65 70 lbs we are the only Predator they have!
Tony Heimann says
Wild pigs are an invasive species. They damage the habitat and are dangerous. It sounds like the new bill has a lot of good points.
Janet says
Leave them alone
Judy Sumpter says
I’ve always heard there’s a sign at the California border stating ” you’re now entering the state of mental illness.” This proves it!
Judy Sumpter says
It’s true there’s a sign at the California border stating ” you’re now entering the state of mental illness.” This proves it!
Agostino says
HOWL’s concern of 1 million per year in lost revenue is almost a comical claim. If these pigs reach numbers of population that we cannot control their numbers, the damages to crops and wild life will be in the tens of millions per year. Here in the central coast of California, we are starting to see the vast herds of wilg pigs running around and their destruction of crops and farm land.
The second issue is the lack of permitting prevents the DFW from gathering the proper data to effectively create a population management plan.
Let’s think about this: a management plan would have to include poisoning these animals given their nature of exponential growth. Correct ? If we are already hunting them, with few restrictions, and is still results in the need for a DFW ” management plan” then hunting has failed.. there are no other options ! Since we do not want to resort to poisoning the countryside, and we have limited resources… let us make the hunting option as viable as possible,
And hope we don’t get to the part where the DFW has to come up with an emergency or field study.
Lastly, reclassification of wild pigs as ” exotic game animals” that is gibberish, this is an animal that has an aggressive nature, destroys millions of dollars in crops each year, with an exponential birth rate. Yes, it would be nice if we could reclassify these animals as innocuous, maybe even train a few boars as house pets.. if you are that naive! The facts are: they will reach a point where the DFW is going to have to spend millions to study and plan their population control. Just call the Department of Agriculture in Texas if you need clarification on just how out of control this problem can get.
For right now, I suggest we face the unfortunate truth that for wild pigs, we must do everything in our power to allow hunters their crack at population control.