The wild hog invasion continues!
My fellow Skinny Moose Network blogger, Mary Ward, the SledChick, shared the following article regarding a wild boar killed on the highway in Massachusetts. The article, from the Worcester Telegram and Gazette said the boar was found in a place where there are no known populations of wild hogs.
Monte D. Chandler of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Amherst said there are no feral pigs, feral swine or Russian boar populations in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island.
“If they are present, they are something that escaped from someone,” he said.
Lisa Capone, a spokeswoman for the state Executive office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, agreed with Mr. Chandler’s assessment.
“There is no native population of boars or feral hogs in Massachusetts,” she said.
Ms. Capone states the obvious, of course… as there is no “native” population of pigs anywhere in the U.S. However, it looks like MA may now join the ranks of states that have non-native populations, as when there’s one, there are usually more.
How much further will they go? My money says, “look out, America, they’ll be in your state soon!”
Yeah I got a kick out of those comments. The fact that Russian boars are not Native Americans notwithstanding, to imply that there is no way this creature was living wild in Massachusetts (which is what I took from those comments) without modern human involvement seems very short-sited. They list New Hampshire and Vermont as having wild boars, but don’t think they could have trekked as far as one state south?
If you watch the interview with Chet Hall on the Boston news, you’ll hear his theory that the boar was living on thousands of unhunted acres on/around a former Army base (Fort Devens). But God forbid these “experts” admit that that’s a possibility!