High-Priced Pig

A professional hunting company from New Zealand has been paid $3.9 million (US dollars) for killing 5,036 feral pigs on Santa Cruz island off the coast of California. They completely eliminated the feral pig population, apparently and may well have rescued the Santa Cruz fox from extinction in the process.

Which has some folks hopping mad.

Experts have declared successful a pig cull for which a team of professional hunters from New Zealand was paid $US3.9 million ($NZ5.63 million) to kill 5036 pigs on a Californian island — the equivalent of $NZ1117 per pig.

The Paeroa-based Prohunt NZ Ltd company was called in during April 2005 to kill an estimated 2000 pigs on the island of Santa Cruz.

The shooters killed the last of 5036 pigs on July 5, 2006, and scientists now say the cull has been a success, with the endangered Santa Cruz island fox species and nine rare plants now rebounding, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The Channel Islands National Park and the private Nature Conservancy, which owns 75 percent of the island, have been monitoring the results of the eradication 29km off the Ventura County coast.

The island was fenced into five sections, and pigs were methodically culled from each part, with as many as 30 dogs used to track and corral them.

About that hopping mad thing:

In April 2005, the Park Service hired Prohunt Inc., a New Zealand-based company, to track down the pigs using helicopters with snipers, traps, dogs and electronic collars. Officials said the methods were "following euthanasia guidelines set forth by the American Medical Veterinary Assn."

"We deny that vehemently," said Richard M. Feldman, a Santa Barbara businessman who sued the park's owners, saying the killings were inhumane and that the Park Service violated its own rules and procedures when it approved the environmental data to support the eradication.

Feldman's suit was dismissed and is currently under submission to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Elliot M. Katz, a Northern California veterinarian who is founder and president of In Defense of Animals, joined in the lawsuit and a second one filed to stop the killing of more than 100 wild turkeys that proliferated once the pigs were gone.

"Obviously, we'd like to stop the government's killing machine, but it's a difficult thing to do. It's a shame," Katz said. "They tend to be very aggressive when it comes to killing other species. As compassion and concern grows in our country, we hope they'll be forced to become responsive."

Gads. Save the feral pigs, let the foxes die? There simply is no sense of proportion these days.