A Typical Florida Solution

A Florida Feral Hog or Wild Pig
Picture credit: US Fish and Wildlife


As you know we have only been here in Florida for about ten years.
To say that coming here to live was Culture Shock,  is an understatement.
There is simply no way to excuse, explain or define some of the behavior here.
In my email this morning was yet another typical example of how some people here handle a bothersome situation.
In this state, thanks to a Spanish explorer, who along with throngs of others invaded Florida hundreds of years ago, with little concern for the havoc that they wreaked on the places and people, are descendants from  Hernando Desoto’s wild hogs, that  have now become a definite problem for many.
Granted these wild hogs do frequently plow through yards eating and destroying much that they survey, but they are simply doing what they must to survive.
They are omnivores and will eat vegetation or what ever is available to them.
Thanks to repeated ignorant and thoughtless  behavior,  there are now many invasive species here, like the thousands of Burmese Pythons in the Everglades, that now number so many they are in danger of completely taking over the entire area and starving out local animals, not to mention the terror they present when the tourists see them.
It is not that these animals are not a problem, this is understood, it is the recommendation by a local Rancher,  or his idea of how to solve it , that makes this state the one of a kind place that it now is.
His suggestion is that the perfect solution to the pig problem is, to eat them.
One of the loudest complaints about the horrible hogs, has been of course, the damage that they do to the countless pristine Golf courses statewide, which in Florida hold nearly Holy stature.
Too many animals get too little respect here and these wild pigs will be just the latest victim of a mind-set where the next to the most hunted animal after the Florida white-tailed deer, will soon be the wild pigs.
I have always had a very soft spot in my heart for pigs, I love them and this hurts.
I wish there was some humane, kind way to solve this, but that will not happen here.
Not in a state where nearly every one has at least one gun and too may find hunting animals a thrilling sport.
There are numerous Hunting Cubs and Ranches entirely devoted to the slaughter of them.
Doing a Google search for Hunting  animals in Florida delivered over 33 million links.
Any questions?
I wonder if this line of thinking may in the future perhaps also encompass invasive humans or other?
Just asking?
Did I mention that hunting season begins in days, but the gun shots and the howling hounds are already being heard here in the Forest every morning.
Yes, I am in the minority, I love pigs and refuse to eat them.
Childhood memories on my Uncle’s farm in Indiana, simply will not allow me to.
Seeing all of this today and knowing what is happening to them, makes me so sad for their bleak life and hopeless future.
The ugly truth is, that this latest approach to an animal irritation, is yet another typical Florida solution.

Places to learn more:
A solution to Florida’s Wild Pig Problems: Eat Them
Wild Hogs in Florida
Can Wild Pigs Ravaging the U.S. Be Stopped?
Hog Wild In Florida! Feral Pigs A Problem
Wild Hogs In Florida: An overview