#Inside Florida’s lucrative feral hog hunting industry

The most invasive species in the US has created an industry of semi-legal poachers. 

“I’m an outlaw,” Dimas “Pompi” Rodriguez told the Guardian of working as one of Florida’s feral hog poachers, a line of work which authorities and homeowners turn a blind eye to due to the animals’ massively destructive existence. 

Though the topic became a laughing stock in 2019 after a viral tweet about assault weapons, the hogs have actually become America’s biggest wildlife challenge.

After pigs escaped from a Spanish explorer near Tampa in 1539, the animals grew into a 9 million strong population present in 39 states. The pests cause what the US Department of Agriculture estimates to be more than $2.5 billion in property damage annually, the Guardian reported. 

The beasts are known to wreak havoc on farms, individuals and their pets to such a degree that Florida has declared open season on them year round — and some people have made a lifestyle out of helping cull their numbers.

Others have started ventures offering aspiring hunters the opportunity to target the creatures.

“For as little as $1,000 (and as much as $12,000, with add-ons like lodging and unlimited ammo) a hunter or wannabe hunter can book a helicopter ride for the purpose of gunning down wild pigs, typically with an assault rifle,” Sports Illustrated reported in 2020.

“The customer wants to go hunting; we want to go eradicating,” Barrett Blume, the owner of one such business, told the publication.

However, critics say the industry’s existence has ironically helped do the opposite. The hogs make for such popular and valuable game, they’re often housed on public and private ranches, but when they escape — which is often — or are purposefully released, they breed and increase the size of local populations. 

“The hog thing is complicated,” groundskeeper Corey Woosely, who shoots hogs on the property he helps maintain, told the publication.

“I’ve probably trapped close to 10,000 hogs,” said Pompi, who sells his live hog catches to Florida hunting outfits. “They’ll call me and say they need 20 hogs in two days, and I run all over the state to catch them.” 

During the day, Pompi works on his pickup truck at a shop and hangs with his hunting buddies. At night, he hunts. 

“We fix everything ourselves around here,” he said. “Gotta keep the trucks running good so we can be out hunting every night.”

In 2019, the currently under-fire podcast “Reply All” did a deep dive into America’s feral hog problem in a wildly popular episode.