Hog Hunters: DC Needs You!
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Competitors throw a dead feral pig in a truck filled with feral pig carcasses during the weigh in for the 2011 Cooktown Hog Hunt at the Top Pub on October 9, 2011 in Cooktown, Australia. Feral pigs are recognised as environmental and agricultural pests reported to have a population of up to 23.5 million over around half of Australia. The Cooktown Hog Hunt is held annually with this year’s hunting window open from registration at 2pm on Friday to the end of weigh in at 2pm on Sunday afternoon. (Mark Kolbe/Getty)
The Washington Post reports on a new concern for Beltway residents: feral pigs.
Wild pigs — not the cute kind you see at the petting zoo but the ones with black bristly coats, narrow snouts and long, self-sharpening tusks — have quietly established themselves in much of Virginia, according to the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. The department estimates that there are between 2,500 and 3,000 wild pigs in the commonwealth. That may seem like a lot, but this number is well behind Texas, where, by one estimate, as many as 3.4 million wild pigs are at large. According to biologist Glen Askins of the Virginia game department, 36 states are coping with the consequences of wild pigs in their midst.
Today, the wild pigs that are closest to the District are living around Catlett, about 10 miles southwest of Manassas, according to Mike Dye, a biologist for the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. In five to 10 years, the species could make its debut inside the Beltway, he says.
I've hunted the things. Tough, dangerous, wily animals. Now of all times, our nation's capital needs brave men like Paul Ryan to save the day!