Feral Hogs No Longer Big Game in Tennessee

Wild pigs are no longer considered big game for hunters, under a new state law taking effect this month. Officials say they’re hoping the move will make it easier for farmers and landowners to keep Tennessee’s feral hog population in check.

Feral hogs are basically escaped farmyard pigs that have turned back into wild animals, with longer teeth and tails. They’re considered a major nuisance in parts of East Tennessee because they’re insatiable eaters as well as prolific breeders. State Representative John Mark Windle compares them to small bulldozers.

“They’ll just make row after row after row through the woods and through the pastures, and it looks like somebody’s taken a submarine and driven through the ground, or a giant mole or some other type of disturbance.”

Windle sponsored a new law which paved the way for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency to change its rules on killing wild hogs.

Chief of Wildlife and Forestry Daryl Ratajczak (RATTA-chak) says what they had been doing – issuing hunting licenses – was making things worse.

“Folks that wanted to hunt hogs would trap them illegally, transport them illegally, and release them illegally into different parts of the state. And so this idea of sport-hunting was kind of detrimental to our hog-control management.”

So instead of giving people big-game permits to hunt pigs, now Ratajczak says property owners can kill them without asking permission. And they can get the OK over the phone for a group of up to 10 to help. They can also go to lengths normal hunters couldn’t – they can kill pigs in traps or over bait, as well as at night.

Some lawmakers wanted to go further and allow hunters to use dogs as well, statewide. But Ratajczak says TWRA worries that would only chase the pigs onto neighboring lands, so for now they’re limiting the use of dogs to four counties in East Tennessee.

Firm estimates of Tennessee’s feral hog population are hard to come by, but total U.S. figures number in the millions.