California Tackles Feral Pig Problem with New Changes

California officials are making changes to address the growing feral pig problem plaguing much of the state. It could be too little, too late, however.

California Tackles Feral Pig Problem with New Changes

State officials estimate more than 400,000 wild pigs are in California and the numbers grow each year. Photo: iStockphoto.com/Jason Johnson

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law that will relax regulations and reduce hunting license fees for hunters pursuing feral pigs. 

State officials estimate more than 400,000 wild pigs are in California and the numbers grow each year. Pigs have been identified in 56 of the state’s 58 counties; the exceptions are Alpine and San Francisco counties. 

Senate Bill 856, sponsored by Sen. Bill Dodd (D-Napa) was approved without any opposition in the state Senate and Assembly. Newsome signed it into law last September. The bill eliminated any bag limits by hunters, prohibited the intentional release of a pig to live in the wild, allows use of artificial lights for night hunting, and other changes. 

The ongoing drought in California and other Western states have forced feral pigs to seek new areas for food and water. In the Central Valley and around Napa and Sonoma, the major agriculture- and wine-producing areas of the state, the pigs are moving out of wooded, hilly areas into populated areas. In other parts of the state, pigs are moving into neighborhoods and towns seeking food and water, similar to issues in Hawaii, Texas, Florida and other states. 

Eric Sklar with the California Fish and Game Commission told AlmanacNews.com that the wild pigs are “a complicated problem and the solutions are complicated.” 

Some changes with the new law go into effect Jan. 1, 2023, and others on July 1, 2024.



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