Locals have beef with these porkers.
A pack of as many as 10 feral hogs are rooting up some chaos in a suburb of Irving, Texas, with locals resisting the urge to “blast” the pigs while waiting for their local government to take action.
The invasive porkers have been tearing up landscaping and rummaging through trash bags as locals sleep unaware that their tidy suburban yards have been converted into pigpens.
“A couple weeks back, I started seeing some diggings on the ground,” homeowner Eric Mendez tells WFAA, adding that he set up a camera to solve the mystery.
“To my surprise, a pig was on the camera,” he told the outlet.
Not just one pig, but as many as ten, some of which are quite large and growing fast.
The City of Irving, which has hired a contractor with to handle the problem, and locals are finding makeshift ways to handle the issue on their own.
“My first thought was, like, well, I can go shoot them,” Mendez tells the outlet.
“But I’m like, yeah, I’m in a neighborhood. I can’t just go out there and start blasting.”
Mendez, instead, has resorted to a slingshot and clapping two pieces of wood together in order to scare off the hogs.
Feral hogs engage in a behavior called “rooting” — digging up the ground for food and sometimes just for the fun of it, according to animal experts.
These beasts also reproduce at a rapid rate — with a sow able to birth two litters a year of six to eight piglets each.
They are known to attack both humans and pets and bring with them an economic burden.
Feral hogs in the Lone Star State cause damage estimated to be in excess of $400 million annually, according to the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension.
Nationally, $1.4 billion of damage is done by wild hogs, according to that study.
Back in November, a wheelchair-bound Texas man was forced to fend off a pack of wild hogs with an airsoft gun.
Houston resident Carl White said one pig from a pack that has been terrorizing his neighborhood — even killing families’ pets — charged him while he was near his home.
He whipped out an airsoft gun as the beast got “so close that [White] could smell him.”
The LED light scared that pig away and White fired a couple rounds as it ran to ensure it would scram for good.
“Just don’t get yourself in a position where you’re confronting or cornering them, because that’s when they really get nervous and come at you,” White told KHOU 11.
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