It was completely predictable that feral pigs wreaking havoc at Hoomaluhia Botanical Garden in Kaneohe would do even more damage once the city stopped culling the animals. The city let its contract with federal trappers lapse anyway, and now, a mere three months later, park employees report that the pigs have become bolder, rooting up native plants and alarming campers as they venture further into public areas of this 400-acre oasis in suburban Oahu.
But rather than simply reupping the contract with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to remove some of the creatures, the city should pursue a novel solution with the Oahu Pig Hunters Association that would save taxpayers a little money and keep the pig carcasses out of the Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill.
The association, whose members all are licensed hunters, pledges to follow any rules the city may impose — which should preclude the use of hunting dogs, guns or bows and arrows. Hoomaluhia sits near residential neighborhoods, after all, and safety risks must be mitigated.
The USDA teams were successful with box or cage traps, set at night, and the hunting association should be limited to that, too; 232 feral pigs were captured there from 2007 to 2013.
The hunters would be paid in pig, meaning they’d get to keep the animals they catch. That’s a sustainable solution that costs the taxpayers nothing and ends the wasteful practice of throwing away perfectly good meat.
The thousands of feral pigs roaming Oahu — including an estimated 200 at the botanical garden — are descendants of the Polynesian pigs brought to Hawaii by the islands’ first settlers, the Native Hawaiians, and European species introduced by Captain Cook and other later arrivals. Free in Hawaii’s verdant landscape and with no natural predators here, what began as controlled livestock grew into an environmental menace.
The Nature Conservancy describes the invasive species as a primary threat to Hawaii’s natural environment. The pigs eat and trample native plants and anything else they can get their snouts on, accelerate soil erosion and degrade vital watersheds. Mosquitoes that can spread disease to forest birds are attracted to their muddy wallows. There are threats to humans, too, in the feces that can spread infectious diseases such as brucellosis and leptospirosis, which cause flu-like symptoms.
Attacks on humans are very rare — there have been none at Hoomaluhia in the 11 years one administrator’s been counting — but the pigs are getting bolder, and too close for comfort. The botanical garden is a favored camping spot for families with young children, and it would be a shame if fear drove them away.
The City Council passed a resolution earlier this month authorizing a new contract with the USDA to cull the animals at a cost of $53,009 a year, but acceded to Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s request to hold off until the city could review the pig-hunting association’s offer.
The city’s main concern is about liability, an apprehension expressed by the Department of Parks and Recreation, which operates Hoomaluhia. But that issue should not be insurmountable, especially since the hunting association already does similar work for private landowners and government agencies elsewhere on Oahu.
The hunters have a legitimate role here, providing an important public service — for free — and making good use of a food resource that was previously wasted. It’s not primarily about the money — the amount saved is a pittance against the city’s potential $156 million budget shortfall. It’s about civic engagement, and involving regular citizens in outside-the-box solutions that serve the common good. Truly a model to root for.
