The ongoing drought and record low water supplies aren’t the only issues that New Mexico farmers are worried about. Wild pigs are causing damage in 22 counties across the state. As a result, the state has a program in the works to remove them with funding offered by the Federal Government to states that have been most impacted by the wild hogs.
It’s been eight years since these pigs were first brought illegally to New Mexico for hunters. Now they’ve become quite a nuisance for farmers and ranchers as the pigs harass livestock and eat their crops.
State Land Commissioner Ray Powell says the feral pigs have learned to avoid traps set for them and that makes them even harder to catch. “These are very bright and adaptive animals, they’re just in the wrong place in New Mexico, doing a lot of damage to our natural world and to wildlife.”
Powell says the pigs now pose an even bigger threat, they carry several types of infectious diseases.
The one million dollars in federal funds, along with another quarter of a million dollars from state lawmakers to the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish will help eradicate the pigs before their population spreads.