BORDER WATCH: Band of Canadian Feral Hogs Threaten Montana

The hogs are coming. Specifically, from Canada. As the Daily Inter Lake first reported, “large populations” of feral hogs from Saskatchewan and Alberta are “encroaching” on the Montana border.

Per the site:

Multiple reports have emerged of groups of feral hogs being spotted “very close” to the border. One of the most recent sightings occurred earlier this summer when eight mature pigs were discovered in Canada directly above Lincoln County. That’s according to John Steuber, the state director and a supervisory wildlife biologist for Wildlife Services, a program with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

And officials with Wildlife Services, Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks, the National Feral Swine Program, the Montana Invasive Species Council and others share the same concerns about the pigs: it would be an invasive species the likes of which the state has never seen.

“Multiple people say that if we were to design an invasive species that would do the most widespread damage, feral swine aren’t too far off from being the perfect specimen,” said Dale Nolte, program manager for the National Feral Swine Program, which is operated by the United States Department of Agriculture. “It would be a disaster.”

The news of the oncoming Hogpocalypse reached the Associated Press on Tuesday, and now it has reached you. For farmers in rural Montana, this is a real problem: the Inter Lake reports that roving herds of hogs can “decimate” the landscape and spread disease. For those of us already diseased by the lunatic news cycles of Twitter, this is just more ammunition in the ongoing Hog Discourse. I, for one, see no other option: We must build a wall along the entire Montana-Canada border, patrolled by heavily armed guards, to keep out the hogs.

Wildlife services, we are assured, is “in the process of putting together a feral swine management plan for the state,” per the site. We wish them the best of luck in their efforts to turn back the tide of hogs.