With wild hogs in South San Jose have started becoming “trap wise,” two councilmen want to allow trappers to fell the couple-hundred-pound beasts with bows and arrows.
The Capital of Silicon Valley first started addressing its pig problem back in 2013, when Councilman Johnny Khamis and former Councilman Pete Constant introduced an ordinance allowing licensed trappers to catch and kill the pigs within city limits.
Since then, it seems, the feral hogs have started to wise up.
In a bid to stay a step ahead of the feral hogs, Khamis has teamed up with council colleague Sergio Jimenez to allow California Department of Fish and Wildlife-authorized pig-catchers to use archery instead of just traps.
The 11-member council will consider the proposal on Tuesday afternoon.
Proprietors of the Coyote Creek Golf Club say the pigs have cost them $16,000 in damages on their 414-acre property in 2020 alone.
“The constant repair is having a negative financial impact to our Golf Course Maintenance budget, as well as presenting a less than ideal playing condition for our guests,” General Manager Mike Fish wrote in a letter to the city.
Fish says that the nearly $16,000 excludes the monthly trapping fees and future costs of replacing large swaths of the course. In 2017, the golf club paid $40,000 to replace parts of the course that had been destroyed by the wild boars.
Unlike domesticated pigs, feral hogs are aggressive and have been known to charge and attack humans. “They’re dangerous, they’re not part of the natural habitat that has been here and they cause a lot of damage so we’re hoping to control their population,” Khamis told San Jose Inside. “If they’re going to learn not to destroy the property than let them learn. They learn how to evade traps, maybe they’ll learn not to chew up peoples’ grass.”
Khamis and Jimenez’s proposal is considered an urgency ordinance, which means it will become effective immediately upon council approval compared to regular ordinances that go into effect 30 days after adoption.
To pass an urgency ordinance, the city council needs eight votes instead of six. If approved, it would be in effect until the end of the year.
The City Council convenes virtually at 1:30pm Tuesday. Click here to read the entire agenda, here to join the Zoom meeting and here to tune in on YouTube.
Remington 7600 in 30-06
Solves the problem
If bows and arrows are outlawed, only outlaws will have bows and arrows.
Maybe the city council should send boar councilors to reason with them. Hasn’t that proven to work well? OH Wait!
Would it make more sense to use some sort of fencing or other humane methods to keep them off the course? No need to kill animals for the sake of Killing them.
According to the city, it would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to set up a fence.
https://www.sccgov.org/sites/parks/parkfinder/Documents/Feral_Pig_Brochure.pdf
This is just one example of wild boar, it goes well beyond the golf course, and if there was a fence, they’d go elsewhere and cause damage. Hopefully the meat will be donated to food banks.
If they’re only messing up a golf course, I’m siding with the pigs
> No need to kill animals for the sake of Killing them.
They’re not being killed just for the sake of killing them.
They’re being killed because they’re made out of ham, baccn, and port sausage.
They make excellent moo shoo pork, carnitas, and Carolina barbecue ribs.
Wow its only Golf Course.. seriously? How is that more important than our wildlife.
This is ridiculous. Dont have my vote
> Wow its only Golf Course.. seriously? How is that more important than our wildlife.
Wherever you live in California, you are living in THEIR habitat.
Is YOUR house more important than our wildlife?
Shoot em. They’ll soon be so outta control they’ll be overwhelming to homeowners as well. Shoot them and donate the meat.
There are also quite a few feral pigs living on the banks of Guadalupe River. They too are doing a lot of damage. Lighting fires, grafittiing, pooping in the creek…
I would gladly take a couple of pig by bow to fill my freezer….
The article mentions California isn’t their natural habitat but didn’t mention where they are from. Where is their habitat? (no, I don’t want them)
@Prissy
I believe the boar were imported from Europe by sport hunters early in our state’s history. They subsequently bred with escaped domestic pigs, making them a unique hybrid, but certainly not one deserving of any protection from humane hunters.
They will never kill off the pigs the fish & game know what they are doing they only want 2 take a few thousand pounds just 2 slow them down and no 1 wants 2 golf where the ball wont roll . The only thing i want 2 know is how can i get on this list im a bow hunter and so are my sons . We should lets more kids hunt for these pigs so these kids can stop killing each other
The golf course can afford to build a fence. Why are they making this everyone elses problem and making it cost in taxes instead. If the pigs come to my house I would put a fence up, not cry to the city council.
This a non native, invasive species. Their number need to be kept in check to prevent them from doing too much damage to the environment.
Bow hunting takes quite a bit of skill and eliminates any concerns around guns. This solution seems perfectly reasonable to me.
How do you like YOUR second amendment rights being stripped away now? Hunting fixes these issues in almost every other state. Talk about hypocrisy….jeeze.
I just heard on the news this passed. I’m incredibly disappointed. We’re killing animals for messing up a golf course we built in their yard. Shame on us.
This is absolutely terrible. How can you evil, hateful people kill these poor hogs? They can’t defend themselves from the likes of us and our weapons of war. We need to set aside sanctuary land for these poor little piggies and before you it, problem solved.
I WILL buy a bow and arrow, if this passes!! HELL YESSS!!
Dude. Are you for real? Do you know how bacon and ham get to our tables?
I can see this in a few different ways but the people who think that this is a bad thing come on you dont cry this much when kids are getting killed out there. This is a good thing we need 2 get these kids out there.1st teach them the rights and wrongs about hunting and you will see just how much this will help out every 1. Must kids will love hunting get them off the streets and kill off a few hundred pigs its win. Win all the way around
Who gets the meat? Will the meat go to food banks? Given to market to sell? Sold by the golf course?
Is there a market for the hides?
Yes, crossbows are the way to go. Controled hunts , reduce the vermin.
Too bad they won’t let hunters take care of the problem. Trapper permits are for pest control only. If I kill it, I want to eat it, NOT waste the meat!
You realize this would be happening within city limits? You really want a bunch of people firing their rifles that close to residences and businesses?
Hasn’t been a problem elsewhere. A firearm is arguably more humane and safer. Feral hogs increasingly injure people and dogs in urban areas. A charging animal is more readily stopped by a bullet than an arrow.
Both types require hunting licenses. Reckless discharge by either can kill or injure. The main rationale for bowhunters in populated areas is less noise.
Will. be interesting to see how the muni code is revised. Currently illegal to shoot any projectile outside of a permitted range. Technically Nerf and spud guns are illegal if not at a permitted range.
LOL, Just love watching crazy Californians stew in there own feces over a problem they have created all by them selves. Most golf course around here are owned by local municipalities and the cost of damage gets passed on to the taxpayers. Not you Mr. Taxpayer. These wild pigs are just escaped domestic pigs that have gone back to a wild/feral condition. They can be dangerous, can kill and maim humans and group of them can eat you, overnight. They destroy natural habitat and other wild life and spread diseases like sudden oak death syndrome that has killed millions of oak and other hardwood trees in California and contributing to wild fires. You know like global warming. Shooting them on a golf course or a park, is no problem. Shoot from an elevated platform, rifle or bow your shooting down into the dirt No problem! Noise, a suppressed rifle or large caliber pellet rifle, is fairly quiet and very quick and accurate. Good luck with changing that muni code, we tried a few years back, the lawyers and insurance companies and one guy in Parks and Rec just wouldn’t budge. Maybe if some politicians kid gets mauled. In the mean time I’m LOL!
M.T.Gunn, Would be nice, but suppressors are illegal in CA.
I urged that SJPD helicopters offer hog hunting on their nightly rounds that already disturb residents. Gun fire wouldn’t be noticeable above their current acoustical impact. Very popular in Texas (Heli-Bacon) and successfully reduce the feral pig population. Would reduce our mounting $72 million deficit too.
Probably unwise to brand it the SJPD Pig Shoot given the current antipathy toward public safety.
Your right. Suppressors are still illegal here, damaging hearing and disturbing rioters. Even the Europeans have recognized the safety benefits of using suppressor on their guns time, to change that stupid law too!
It is questionable as to weather barrels with suppressors that are all integral, “one piece” are legal or not, and weather a Federal tax stamp is required. I see them sold over the counter in other states and on line.
A bow is just as effective as a gun in the right hands. Also not just anyone can go pick up a bow and expect to go kill a pig. But any person capable or not can pick up a gun and run around shooting pigs from a few hundred yards away. That is far more dangerous than a skilled archer dispatching pigs. Also pigs are not native to our area and they destroy our habitat!!
I hope it passes!!!!
San Jose gangbangers will volunteer to shoot the pigs.