Feral swine killed in Tunbridge

TUNBRIDGE, Vt. (WCAX) – Vermont is a state that does not have a wild pig population and wildlife experts are working to keep it that way. A wild boar was recently killed in the Green Mountain State in the ongoing effort to keep the state feral swine free.

The wild boar, shot and killed in Tunbridge, has Vt. Fish & Wildlife officials concerned. “We’ve never had an established feral pig population and when we do have reports of them, we’ve been lucky enough to go in and remove the animals,” said the department’s David Sausville.

That’s exactly what happened to this feral swine. Working with Vermont game wardens, USDA specialists baited and killed the animal in Tunbridge. “Potential for them to bring disease to our domestic livestock — also they have diseases they can pass on to humans — and they do a lot of destruction to our natural habitat and also to crop fields,” Sausville said.

The wild pig was spotted rummaging about by multiple people in the area. “It was like 3 o’clock in the afternoon, I looked off to my right and it was down in this brushy area,” said Gabe Freitag.

Freitag recognized the animal as a Russian boar. His home is a couple miles from where it was eventually killed. Officials say it is possible the boar migrated to Vermont from a game preserve in New Hampshire that is known to have the non-native animals on the land. “I worked in Corbin Park over in New Hampshire doing forestry so I saw them there and I’ve been pig hunting down in Virginia,” Freitag said.

“This is to my knowledge, the fourth feral swine that we have had within the last four years,” said Brendan Popp with USDA Wildlife Services.

The animal has been sent to a lab for genetic testing to see if it had any diseases and perhaps even more important, where it came from. “Since Vermont doesn’t have a population, the genetics are more to make sure that someone hasn’t brought a truckload of pigs from down south up to Vermont and released them for hunting purposes,” Popp said.

Anyone who spots a wild boar, either in person or on a camera, is encouraged to call game wardens.

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