Texas lawmakers want more research conducted before pesticides used in 'hog apocalypse'

Feral hogs (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service photo)

The "hog apocalypse" in Texas is under attack. The state House on Tuesday voted 127-12 to approve legislation "that would require state agency or university research before the use of lethal pesticides on wild pigs," Morgan Smith reports for The Texas Tribune. "A companion bill in the Senate has 10 co-sponsors." Under the House bill, "before approving a feral hog poison for use, the state would have to conduct a study on its potential negative impact on other wildlife."

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller in February "announced an emergency state rule change allowing the use of the warfarin-based poison Kaput, which was recently approved by the Environmental Protection Agency to kill wild pigs," Smith writes. The state's feral hogs, which are blamed for eating newborn lambs, uprooting crops and trampling parks and highways, are estimated to cause $50 million in damage per year.

When pigs eat the pesticide, "it kills them slowly, often painfully and turns their innards blue. It’s already wiped out swine herds in Australia, which later banned the product as inhumane," Avi Selk reported in March for The Washington Post.