Pigging out on irony

[Bob Of Burleson]

Controlling Feral Hogs:
Bacon preservative tested as poison

Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS — A preservative used to cure bacon is being tested as poison for the nation’s estimated 5 million feral hogs.

Descendants of both escaped domestic pigs and imported Eurasian boars, the swine cost the U.S. about $1.5 billion a year — including $800 million in damage to farms nationwide.

Hunting and trapping won’t do the trick for these big, wildly prolific animals. So, the U.S. Department of Agriculture kicked off a $20 million program this year to control feral swine, which have spread from 17 states in 1982 to 39 now.

Sodium nitrite is far more toxic to pigs than people and is used in Australia and New Zealand to kill feral swine. USDA scientists say it may be the best solution in the U.S., but they’re not yet ready to ask for federal approval as pig poison.

Vance Taylor of Brooksville, Mississippi, has seen up to 50 hogs in a field at once. He estimates the animals cost him 40 to 60 acres of corn and soybeans a year. They once rooted up about 170 acres of sprouting corn; they trample ripe corn, taking a few bites from each ear.

“It looks like a bulldozer has been through your field,” he said. To minimize damage, he hires a hunter and sometimes even heaps corn away from his fields so they’ll eat there.

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