East Bay

Feral Pigs Causing Problems for Lafayette Residents

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Officials from the city of Lafayette are making plans to rid the area of a surprising problem—aggressive feral pigs.

The packs of wild hogs have been running wild in Lafayette, tearing up lawns, parks, school fields and scaring neighbors. The city has received relentless complaints about the animals, which have forced the city to close some of its hiking trails until the problem is under control.

One of the areas where the pigs appear to be originating is the Lafayette Community Park.

The city plans hire a licensed trapper to control them.

“We’ll use a system that will bait the pigs to an area and catch them into an enclosure,” said Johnathan Katayanagi, Lafayette’s parks and rec director.

Some of the feral pigs are quite large, weighing up to 250 pounds with aggressive behavior toward people and property.

“This woman was saying that her husband was walking with his dogs and the pigs pretty much charged at him and attacked him,” said Portland Logan of Lafayette. “It’s really scary to me because we walk back there.”

"We've had $20,000 worth of damage done to the fields, the school district lost their entire field at Burton Valley Elementary," said Katayanagi .

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