Feral Pigs in California Need Your Defense

FROM Friends of Animals (FOA)

ACTION

Tell the BLM to cancel plans to harm/kill feral pigs in San Diego County. The animals can balance their own populations, as nature intended. Human interference will not help. Send comments before June 26, 2011. If you are a California resident be sure to indicate that.

Mr. Pete Gamben
Environmental Coordinator
Cleveland National Forest
10845 Rancho Bernardo Road, Suite 200
San Diego, CA 92127
online contact form
Comments may also be emailed in a Word (.doc) rich text format (.rtf), portable document format (.pdf) or text (.txt) format to [email protected]

INFORMATION / TALKING POINTS

The Bureau of Land Management is making plans to eradicate feral pigs in San Diego County, California. They erroneously claim that these pigs are destroying the sensitive ecosystem—even though the U.S. Forest Service estimates that there are only 300 pigs. The BLM's plan includes the use of cage traps, corral traps, federal hunters with guns and dogs and even shooting from helicopters to exterminate the area’s population, according to a story in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

This regressive proposal is estimated to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. In truth, these pigs are a dynamic part of the environment in which they live—as they disperse seeds and are prey for other animals like mountain lions. They also disperse seeds through their scat, while their numbers are too small to significantly impact any fragile ecosystem.

Thank you for everything you do for animals!