Posted on 09/11/2013 2:40:26 PM PDT by nickcarraway
It's no joke, but a hoard of wild pigs has gone hog wild in suburban San Ramon.
Over the last few months as many as 20 of the nocturnal beasts (at least, that's how one neighbor remembers it) have ripped up grass and turned over gardens - all in the hot pursuit of grub. When homeowners in the Henry Ranch neighborhood have woken up, they've been shocked to find their manicured lawns all askew.
"It looks like a tornado has hopped from yard to yard," Carrie Spurlock said. "We've tried to deter them, but they keep coming back."
And it's not just Spurlock's lawn that has been wrecked.
A recent visit to the neighborhood by NBC Bay Area on Wednesday revealed a dozen or so front lawns looking like they had been professionally Rototilled -- and left a mess -- by the rotund mammals destroying property in a neighborhood where home prices start at more than half a million dollars.
Neighbors have been frustrated with trying to get rid of the pigs. They've used pesticides to kill insects, which the pigs like to dine on. They've installed motion-sensored lights hoping that would keep the animals away. They said they've called the Dept. of Fish and Game, but haven't gotten the runaround. And they've called a trapper, who initially set up cages, but has since taken them down.
All to no avail.
For now, neighbors are left to replant their grass and smooth out their bumpy lawns.
"We're very aggravated," Spurlock said. "They might even be a danger to people."
root hog or die
“Root hog, or die” is a common American catch-phrase dating from well before 1834. Coming from the early colonial practice of turning pigs loose in the woods to fend for themselves, the term is an idiomatic expression for self-reliance.
Professionally accredited journalists at work there, dontcha know.
Send them to the Gitmo kitchen.
Not that I’m any kind of expert, but if you watch the video I think you’ll see that each shot consists of three or four projectiles. I’m guessing it’s a shotgun with “ball” ammo.
The guy is a amazing shot though. There are other helicopter pig-hunt videos where the shooter takes seven or eight shots to hit pig. This guy rare needs more than two; he hits quite a few on his first shot.
.45-70 with 500 grain hard cast lead bullets. Goes clean through stem to stern
Or spitballs.
Or your bare hands.
California is just giving our porcine friends better odds...
“whored”
how to get through journalism school...
slut walk?
Kill the pigs. Kill them with guns. Kill them indiscriminately. This is the only cure for wild pigs.
California fish and game regs regarding hunting wild pigs (excerpt)
b) Shotguns capable of holding not more than three shells firing single slugs may be used for the taking of deer, bear and wild pigs. In areas where the discharge of rifles or shotguns with slugs is prohibited by county ordinance, shotguns capable of holding not more than three shells firing size 0 or 00 buckshot may be used for the taking of deer only.
Shotguns are OK for hunting wild pig (with the usual qualifications) according to CA regs.
You are correct. My depredation permit said, "centerfire rifle." The video to which I was referring was probably not shot in California.
It is clearly a shotgun, but I wouldn't expect a clean kill with anything less than a slug. He is an amazing shot though.
I suspect that over the last few days, the fire has driven lots of wild life over the ridge into Danville and San Ramon.
-PJ
You can use a shotgun in Cali to kill pigs, but only with slugs, not shot.
thanks.
The turkeys now own the upper Clayton Valley, Pine canyon, Walnut Heights, and Round Hill.
Baby turkeys are running around everywhere.
Apparently, there are fossil indications in the LA Basin that there was once a "native" wild turkey in California, one that the Indians may have extirpated farther north.
I think that’s a “horde” of pigs, not a “hoard.” SOmebody get a dictionary, please!
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