There may be anywhere between 20,000 and 50,000 feral pigs in Guam, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which said the problem is far larger than many residents realize and greater than current removal efforts can address.
"That's a lot of pigs," USDA Wildlife Services Guam Assistant State Director Chad Richardson told the Mayors Council of Guam this past week.
It's been a year since Richardson last addressed the Mayors Council seeking increased funding for the feral swine program. At the time, the Council agreed to provide $60,000 in supplemental funding. On Sept. 9, he reported back to the mayors on their funding has been used.
"This year I've managed to with you guys' help and other cooperators and some additional federal money, basically up to four full-time trappers now," Richardson said.
Though one of those trappers is now working full time with the National Guard, he said the three remaining trappers are assigned to areas around the island primarily working in the north and south with the third trapper floating between the two districts.
"So, we'll shuffle that around. ... But I have enough funding for about four full-time guys and that's still really not enough to keep up with the problem, to be quite honest," Richardson said.
Although funding from the Mayors Council helped increase manpower and trapping efforts, he said even with record trapping numbers and removing 2,600 pigs in the last two years, "we're still way behind the ball on this. So, we've got a lot of work to do."
To keep the population from growing, he said roughly 6,000 feral swine need to be removed annually, but to really make a dent, 15,000 need to be removed.
Feral pigs have been on Guam for roughly 250 years, though it's been a problem for decades, Richardson contended the problem is worse now and poses greater health risks to the community.
"All of our pigs are diseased, and they have some fairly serious diseases Swine brucellosis, pseudorabies, leptospirosis, being the main ones," Richardson said.
He added that Guam's rate of diseased feral pigs is double the disease prevalence rate in the United States.
"That makes it additionally challenging for us to utilize these pigs. We can still eat them, but we do have to take precautions when we handle them, and when we cook them. And so, we also make the residents aware of that when we're dealing with pigs, and if we're donating pigs to people that want to eat them, but it is certainly an issue that we have to deal with here as well," Richardson said.
He estimated that damages caused by feral pigs exceed $100,000 based on reports from residents and farmers across the island.
Richardson stressed that although there is pig derbies held in the community during the year to help control the population, a pig derby is not going to solve the problem.
"We're not going to barbecue our way out of this one. We've got a lot more work to do than that," Richardson added.
The USDA feral swine program has shifted from small traps to large corral traps which aim to capture groups of pigs versus one or two at a time.
"So we go into these properties, and we're not going to be able to get them all. If we put cameras up and we see that there's 20 pigs in that area, we want to try to catch 20. Sometimes we only get 19 and it's time to move on. We get sometimes, I know, a couple weeks ago, I think we had 15 calls in one week, from all over the island. So, with four guys, ... we can run about six traps apiece; there's a waiting list constantly," Richardson said.
Richardson stressed that stable long-term funding is needed.
"Grants are great, but grants are hard for me to build stable, long-term funding. For me to have a consistent program to really get a handle on this, I need consistent funding," Richardson said.
"And so, we're slowly building it. I'm continuing to work on the federal side to continue to get more federal money, but this is a local problem that requires local funding as well. So, I'm doing everything I can from everybody that's willing to pitch in and help and work together to help solve this issue," he added.
Mayors Council President Mayor Jesse Alig suggested seeking funding from the Guam Legislature.
"Why not go and ask the legislature for $5 million? If $5 million is going to take care of the problem, rather than piecemeal it. And only half of the room is going to be thankful, and the other half of the room is going to be, you know, up in arms. So again, I'm not being critical. I'm asking, I'm saying, can we look at a bigger solution," Alig said.
Richardson however said because he is a government employee he can't lobby for funding before the Legislature.
"I can work on these lower levels and try to just help do what I can do, and that's all I try to do. I mean, if you take away the $60,000, though, it's going to really hurt. I mean, we are helping, I think. We definitely need more. I know. But I'm doing the best I can with what I got," he said.
He did note that some of the program's collaborators have penned a letter to Congressman James Moylan about the need for higher funding levels. He also said that funding for the program this year is comparable to funding levels received by Hawaii.