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The following news release was issued by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources on Friday night:
Indiana Conservation Officers are investigating a report of two feral hogs that were near US 20 and County Rd 12 in Middlebury in Elkhart County. According to witness at approximately 5:15 pm a woman came home to find that there was a pig in her yard. As she went to enter her house the pig came towards her. She contacted her brother who arrived and found that there were in fact two feral hogs with approximately 3 inch tusks and looked very shaggy. The brother contacted Indiana Conservation Officer Seth Owens and was advised that feral hogs were nuisance animals and could be destroyed by the landowner or written permission given to destroy the animals. Both feral hogs were destroyed. Officer Owens would like to comment that this is not a normal situation and more information is available on the DNR website about feral hogs. Further any sightings of feral hogs should be reported to the DNR.
Feral / Wild Hog
What are wild hogs?
“Wild hogs”, also called “wild pigs”, “wild boar” or “feral pigs”, are among the many names that refer to non-native swine and various hybrids that have either been illegally released or were formerly domestic pigs allowed to become feral throughout many states, including Indiana. Wild hogs include domestic hogs that have acclimated to living in a wild or free-roaming environment, were born in the wild, are free-roaming without any visible tags, markings, or have behavioral characteristics that would indicate a domestic state or private ownership, or have skeletal characteristics indicative of a wild or Eurasian origin as defined in 312 IAC 9-3-18.6.
Can a person legally kill a wild hog in Indiana?
A landowner, tenant, or other person with written permission of the landowner can shoot or trap a wild hog on that landowner’s private property without a permit. Be sure to check local ordinances before using a firearm. If trapped, the hog must be killed at the trap site or euthanized immediately after moving it from the trap site. However, wild hogs cannot be offered for compensation of any kind for hunting or taking purposes and cannot be released into the wild. A person cannot charge a service fee for shooting, trapping or removing a wild hog from private property unless the person has a nuisance wild animal control permit from the Division of Fish and Wildlife.