Panel: Put teeth in wild-hog law

— An Arkansas House committee Wednesday endorsed a bill to set a $1,000-per-hog fine as the penalty for releasing hogs to live in the wild on public or private land.

Under current law, such a release is not a violation of law if the landowner has consented to it. The maximum fine under current law is $500.

Rep. Jerry Brown, D-Wynne, chairman of the Agriculture, Forestry and Economic Development Committee, told the committee that feral hogs are “an ever-growing problem,” and he hopes his House Bill 1440 “is a start to trying to curb that.”

Even domestic hogs can become feral in the wild, he said.

Rodney Baker, director of governmental affairs for the Arkansas Farm Bureau, said the release of hogs has been a problem for at least 15 years, and the Legislature in 1999 enacted restrictions.

“It’s legal in Arkansas to kill hogs 24/7, day or night, seven days a week,” he said. “The problem is that’s not been sufficient to control these animals, and part of the problem is that it is currently legal to release a domestic hog or to capture a feral hog and move it to another place if you have the permission of a landowner.

“So you may have an area that has no problems with feral hogs today and in a few months or in a year or so you can have a big problem,” Baker said.

To keep a population of feral hogs in a given area from growing, 70 percent of the animals must be removed each year because they will produce two or three litters a year, sometimes double-digit litters, he said.

“People like to hunt them. We understand that,” he said. “But they are getting off of the private lands, and they are getting off onto other people’s lands. They do a tremendous amount of damage and are potential carriers of disease.”

Brown said the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission supports the measure.

Front Section, Pages 3 on 02/24/2011

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