![]() ![]() Most of the rest covers vehicle use, supplies, and overhead. Of the $51,754 the city plans to spend in the coming year with USDA, nearly $36,704 is for these costs. Most of the costs associated with pig control come from salaries and benefits. Still, Wildlife Services recommends against this for safety purposes. Leong, who used to hunt pigs recreationally before it became his day job, said that landowners can choose to keep the kills. It’s not cost-effective to catch the pigs and relocate them, he said. “You might see our truck go by, but that’s all.” “You probably won’t even know we’re there,” said Homer Leong, who supervises the USDA pig control program. The carcass is then taken to a designated landfill for disposal. Once a pig is caught - and assuming it’s still alive - one of USDA’s hunters “euthanizes” it with a “well-placed” bullet to the head. The agency’s contract with the city states that hunters can use dogs, although that’s not really feasible in the gardens unless there was a willingness to trample over the plants that officials aim to protect. Employees can use corrals, non-lethal leg snares or lethal neck snares. USDA Wildlife Services has several methods for catching swine. ![]() “If we didn’t have the eradication control program we’d be inundated by pigs.” Here Piggy, Piggy Ever since the city contracted with the USDA five years ago the health garden grounds has rebounded, she said. She likens the damage pigs cause to that of a rototiller, a machine that rips apart grass and soil. “Little pigs are cute, but they grow up to be big animals,” Singeo said. This is one of Honolulu Botanical Gardens Director Winnie Singeo’s largest concerns. The pigs also leave behind their droppings, which can carry disease, and potentially pose a safety threat to garden visitors. In Honolulu’s botanical gardens, which fall under the purview of the Department of Parks & Recreation, feral pigs damage the plants and soils, threatening the health of local and sensitive species. “The idea behind pig control is you’re always trying to eliminate the nuisance and the threat.” “There are so many different entities that we work for, the Navy, the Air Force, the Army, the private sector,” USDA Supervisory Wildlife Biologist Darrin Phelps said. USDA Wildlife Services also works to control populations, although the agency focuses on limiting conflicts between pigs and people. There’s no limit on the number pigs a hunter can kill in a season in many locations. In many places around Oahu, the season is long - year round in some places - and hunters are allowed to bag one pig a day. One way the population is controlled is to allow hunting, which costs Hawaii residents $10 for a license. So large, in fact, that USDA Wildlife Services officials can’t even venture a guess. USDA Wildlife Services also captured and killed 23 feral chickens while under contract with the city, but officials said the resources used were negligible when compared to the pigs. And they would probably do it for a lot less, if not free.” “I’m pretty sure if they approached me I would have my phone ringing off the hook to get into the program … I would probably get guys breaking down the door trying to take care of these problems. “I can understand if there was nobody around that would do it, but I don’t think that’s the case,” Lunasco said. He said he was “flabbergasted” by the amount of money the city spends to keep pigs out of the gardens. Lunasco is running for state representative in District 45, the Waialua-Mililani area. “Believe me there are a lot of people out in the community who are willing to do it for free.” “Damn, that’s a lot of quarters,” said Ollie Lunasco, head of the Oahu Pig Hunters Association. You could take a few more if everyone got the kamaaina discount. ![]() That breaks down to about $1,400 per pig.įor that amount, you could take 15 friends to the Polynesian Cultural Center for a luau and evening show. The city has so far spent about $305,000 on this pest control effort, and is expected to add another $52,000 to the total in the coming year. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services branch to trap, shoot and kill 233 feral pigs that root around in the gardens, dropping feces and damaging the tropical and native flora that grow there. ![]() In the last five years, the city has paid the U.S. If Mayor Peter Carlisle hosted a luau the pig might be a little pricey, especially if it came from one of Honolulu’s botanical gardens. Editor’s Note: This is an installment in our occasional series, It’s Your Money, that looks more closely at public expenses that taxpayers may not realize they’re being asked to pay. ![]()
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