Farmer, researcher disagree about new Sask. wild boar policies

A wild pig farmer and a wild pig researcher are in disagreement about Saskatchewan's announcement that it will add new policies to control the boar population in the province.

The province announced Wednesday that wild pigs and boars would be classified as a pest under The Pest Control Act and that it would develop regulations for licensing existing commercial wild boar farms while planning to reject any new ones.

The provincial Ministry of Agriculture said in an email that licensing regulations would introduce more on-farm inspections and oversight, including certain fencing requirements.

"The funny thing is we've already got regulations on our farms," said Kelly Readman, a 27-year boar farmer with approximately 300 pigs on about 200 acres of land east of North Battleford.

"We already get inspected … every year, we already have standards for our fencing, I already have a game farm licence."

He claims that the problem isn't as widespread as the province believes, including in the Saskatchewan wild, and that cracking down on existing farms is unnecessary. He said insurance claims to Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corporation (SCIC) and SGI — for accidents related to boar — don't reflect a problem. 

In an email, SGI said it does not specifically categorize collisions with wild boar, instead lumping them in an "other wildlife" category. 

In total, there are an average of 12,231 collision with deer each year (about $80.2 million in costs), 570 claims for moose ($564,612), 1,766 claims for birds ($314,041) and 1,890 claims for other wildlife ($1.9 million).

CBC contacted SCIC for information on wild pig-related insurance claims late Thursday evening shortly before the end of regular hours.

"They create a host of problems wherever they arrive — the damaged crop, the damaged pasture land," Premier Scottt Moe said during the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM) convention Wednesday, where he announced the new rules. 

"And they all potentially could spread disease to some of the hog barns that we have operating in the province."

Being listed as a pest means poison can be used to get rid of the pigs, but it should be done cautiously, warns Ryan Brook, an associate professor in the University of Saskatchewan's Agriculture and Bioresources Department with more than a decade of wild pig research under his belt.

Poison can affect "all these non-target species and have broad ecosystem impacts," as well as pose a public safety risk.

Brook called wild pigs potentially the worst invasive large mammal on the planet, and said the province's overdue announcement to regulate farms and consider the pigs a pest is one of several tools it should use to control the population.