feral hogs Archives - Missourinet

Missouri lawmakers draw attention to feral hog issue during budget hearing (AUDIO)

January 28, 2020 By Brian Hauswirth

Two southern Missouri state lawmakers are unhappy with a letter the state Department of Agriculture (MDA) director has sent to the U.S. Forest Service, in support of their decision to close the Mark Twain National Forest to feral hog hunting.

State Rep. Robert Ross, R-Yukon, speaks at the Missouri Capitol in Jefferson City on August 22, 2019 (file photo courtesy of Tim Bommel at House Communications)

The issue came up during Monday afternoon’s Missouri House Budget Committee hearing in Jefferson City, when State Reps. Robert Ross, R-Yukon, and Scott Cupps, R-Shell Knob, mentioned the issue to MDA Director Chris Chinn, during her budget presentation.

Chinn testifies that Oklahoma has gone away from an approach Missouri was using, including hunting.

“One of the things that we learned from them (Oklahoma) is that, that above-all approach that we had been taking, they had tried as well and it didn’t work,” Chinn tells Representative Ross.

“Especially not when your (Missouri) Department of Conservation is actively working against the private landowners,” Ross responded.

The above-all approach that Director Chinn is referring to is a policy that some hunters and ranchers near the Mark Twain National Forest want to continue. It involved trapping by Conservation officials, but also hunting by residents.

Ross, who chairs the House Special Committee on Government Oversight, serves on the Budget Committee. He questions Chinn’s letter.

“That’s what really surprised me is that your agency (MDA) would take a position that was in directly in opposition of working with the private landowners, following along with the misguided approach the Missouri Department of Conservation is now pushing,” Ross tells Director Chinn.

Ross says his Texas County constituents support eradicating feral hogs, by hunting. He and Cupps say residents should be allowed to hunt for the hogs on public land.

The Missouri Department of Conservation says allowing residents to hunt feral hogs has increased the number of the animals, along with their range. Conservation agents say there have been illegal releases by people who wanted to hunt feral hogs for recreation.

The Conservation Department has launched a new plan, which aims to eliminate feral hog damage by trapping and killing the hogs themselves.

Director Chinn says feral hogs are a threat to Missouri livestock. She backs the Forest Service’s decision to close the Mark Twain National Forest to feral hog hunting.

Chinn testifies that MDA’s job, through its Animal Health division, is to protect Missouri from diseases. She says if African swine fever were to hit Missouri through the feral hog population, it would be a threat to livestock producers and agribusiness.

“A lot of these livestock eat the corn and the soybean that are raised on many of these farms, and if we should have a disease threat like that hit Missouri, it’s not only going to hurt the livestock industry, it’s going to hit our row crop as well as our grain elevators,” Chinn testifies.

Chinn emphasizes that what’s been done previously isn’t working.

After several minutes of questioning, State Rep. Hannah Kelly, R-Mountain Grove, who chairs the House Subcommittee on Appropriations for Agriculture, asked Ross and Cupps to save the feral hog discussion for another date, when both MDA and the Conservation Department can attend. Kelly wanted Chinn to have time to present her budget.

The issue has been a big one at the Missouri Capitol. Just last week, about 150 southern Missouri hunters and ranchers protested quietly outside the governor’s office, saying the MDC-federal approach won’t work.

Click here to listen to Brian Hauswirth’s interview with Missouri Department of Agriculture (MDA) Director Chris Chinn, which was recorded at the Missouri Capitol in Jefferson City on January 27, 2020:

Hunters at odds with Missouri Department of Conservation, US Forest Service over feral hog restrictions

January 24, 2020 By Ashley Byrd

The federal government has closed Mark Twain National Forest to hunters of feral hogs – at the same time, Missouri’s Department of Conservation has launched a new plan in 2020 to try to eliminate feral hog damage by trapping and killing hogs themselves. They are trying to help landowners and farmers who have had property and cropland torn up. The MDC says a social group of ten hogs can destroy 10-20 acres overnight. MDC website

Bell of Summersville joined about 150 at the Missouri Capitol to speak to lawmakers about hunting rights.

But that approach is not sitting well with some hunters and ranchers who want to hunt the hogs themselves. Dustin Bell is from Summersville, at the edge of the Mark Twain National Forest.

“We think it takes an all-effort, everybody combined, hunters, trappers whatever it takes to control these hogs to prevent them from further damage on our land around for our friends and neighbors and we think that it’s absolutely unrealistic that they can trap all of them out and eradicate the hogs and we think it’s just an overreach of power by MDC,” Bell told Missourinet.

About 150 gathered in a quiet petition signing and protest outside the governor’s office at the state capitol Wednesday, saying the MDC-Federal approach won’t work.

Conservation’s Feral Hog Incident Commander Jason Jensen says letting hunters eradicate the wild hogs did not work.

“We actually encouraged people to hunt feral hogs for several years and that didn’t work,” Jensen said in an interview with Brownfield Ag News. “What we saw during that period of time was that numbers exponentially increased and the range of feral hogs increased. We feel that was mostly due to illegal releases by people who were wanting to hunt feral hogs for that recreational value.”

The department is considering increasing enforcement in some areas so that more of the animals are not released behind MDC staff as they trap hogs.

Bell and the protestors disagree, insisting that hog hunting on public land should not be a crime, but a part of the solution.

“It is our land, taxpayers lands and not MDC’s land. We thoroughly believe that we have the right to ride horses, everything. We should not have to have a permit to ride horses, or hunt hogs or whatever it is.”

The Conservation Department says Missouri has had feral hogs since the 1990’s – and the population has grown. Their trappers disposed of more than 10,000 last year.