The coordinator of Squeal on Pigs Manitoba reports public awareness of the damage that can be caused by wild pigs and the risk they pose to domestic pork production continues to build.
Last year 206 wild pigs were trapped and removed from the Manitoba landscape.
Dr. Wayne Lees, the coordinator of Squeal on Pigs Manitoba, says there are many reasons we don’t want wild pigs, specifically Eurasian wild boar, running loose including the damage they cause to the environment and to crops, their impact on native wildlife as well as their potential to spread disease.
Generally speaking, most folks are aware of the wild pig control efforts and we’ve been pretty active in getting out to various venues, meetings conferences, news reports and trying to spread the message that these wild pigs don’t belong here. They’re an invasive animal and, if folks report sightings, then we will collaborate with land owners and help to get rid of them for them.
We continue to get really good collaboration from the public on reporting sightings of wild pigs. That’s one of the first ways that we learn where wild pigs are in the environment so that’s a really important part.
~ Dr. Wayne Lees, Squeal on Pigs Manitoba
Dr. Lees says the message has reached a fairly large audience. He says you can obviously never reach 100 percent of the people but public awareness is actually fairly high.
