Feral pigs are making their way across New Mexico and are causing more and more damage to the state’s land and crops, according to a government official and a rancher. “I’m continually working on pigs,” said Ron Jones, a U.S. Department of Agriculture wildlife specialist. Reports of wild hogs first started popping up about six years ago, according to the U.S.D.A. Jones said he now spends more than half his time tracking down the animals in Quay County, near the Texas state line. For years, wild hogs have been a problem in other states, like neighboring Texas. But now they’re believed to be in every New Mexico county that borders Texas, and as far west as the Rio Grande. The animals steal food, tear up the land and are generally destructive. And they can be aggressive, too. “They’ll root up a quarter of a mile of road and it’s really hard to fix,” said Bill Humphries, a Tucumcari-area rancher. “Because they’ll dig big holes, kind of like bomb craters in it.” With females producing litters of four to 12 piglets as often as every six months, the hogs are causing major damage to the land and crops of farmers and ranchers like Humphries. Jones and Humphries showed News 13 some of the damage the hogs left behind; about two acres of torn up grassland Humphries’ cattle can no longer graze. The hogs were searching for certain types of roots and bugs, Jones said...more
The full KRQE-TV report is below. Check it out if you want to see if Bill Humphries has lost any of his renowned good looks.
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