There's no evidence that Pennsylvania Game Commissioners are considering nuclear weapons to get rid of Pennsylvania's feral hogs.
They seem willing to try just about anything else, though.
Free-roaming feral hogs are an invasive species, and a harmful one at that. They compete with native wildlife like deer, bears and turkeys for food, destroy habitat when rooting for food and eat fawns.
Last December, the state Supreme Court decided that the Game Commission is responsible for doing something about the animals, even though they're not wildlife. The commission's answer -- at least in part -- is to let hunters shoot hogs when and where they find them, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year in 64-of-67 counties.
"To sit and do nothing, in my mind, is irresponsible," commission executive director Carl Roe said.
The only counties in which the all-out attack of hogs doesn't apply are Butler, Bedford and Cambria. There -- where hog populations are densest -- hogs are off limits to hunters from the end of the flintlock season in mid-January to the beginning of spring gobbler season and from the end of spring gobbler season to the beginning of archery season.
During those times, the U.S. and Pennsylvania departments of agriculture may be trapping the animals.
Trapping is considered to be the more effective method of eradicating hogs, while hunting may cause the animals to disperse the animals more quickly than they would otherwise. No agency has stepped forward with the money to fund a trapping effort so far, however.
Charles Bier, senior director of conservation science for the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, said efforts to raise that money are underway.
In the meantime, though, commissioners said they must do something to get rid of these hogs.
"We can't just let these things out there to reproduce until people do something," said commissioner Russ Schleiden of Centre County.
Commissioner Dave Schreffler of Bedford County called feral hogs a "real, real threat" to Pennsylvania's wildlife. It's important that they be destroyed -- not managed for hunting, but destroyed -- totally and immediately, he said.
"This isn't a hunt, this is an eradication effort. I don't want this animal associated in any way with our game animals, at all. This is a totally different area," Schreffler said.
"I want to totally disassociate it with wildlife management. This is to save our game species."
Radical methods
Game Commissioners might try a more radical method of hog control than hunting.
Walt Cottrell, the commission's veterinarian, said some states have had success wiping out wild hog populations using helicopter teams. A pilot flies low over pig herds while one or two USDA-trained gunners armed with shotguns full of double-ought buckshot blast them from the air.
Cottrell said he's been assured the strategy could work in the wooded terrain common in Pennsylvania. He said he plans to pursue a grant to try it out here.
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