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California's wild pig problem started when a rich guy imported Russian chaos hogs [1]

['Jason Weisberger']

Date: 2026-07-20  

California already had feral pigs. Then a Monterey County landowner added Russian wild boars for sport hunting, and nature responded with a century-long "absolutely not."

Like many problems in California, a rich man decided he wanted to do something and to hell with the public good. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife says Spanish and Russian settlers introduced domestic pigs to California in the early 1700s. Many escaped and became feral. Then, in the 1920s, a Monterey County landowner wanted to hunt something more challenging and introduced European wild boar. The boar bred with those feral domestic pigs, creating the hybrid wild pigs that have now spread through much of the state like 200-pound rats with tusks.

This is a perfect California origin story because it begins with wealth, land, imported danger, and a hobby that becomes everyone else's ecological bill. George Gordon Moore wanted a better hunting weekend. California got Russian boar genes mixed into feral domestic pigs, and now the state has armored rototillers tearing up hillsides, wallowing in streams, and reproducing like OnlyFans sites.

Never let a rich guy add tusks to the ecosystem.

Previously:

• Eight-year-old boy discovers that wild pigs appear to grieve their dead

• Pack of wild pigs unleash destruction at Northern California school

• Watch this wild boar on a gas station rampage

• 30-50 feral hogs are now building pigloos

• More than 30-50 Feral Canadian Hybrid 'Super Pigs' reportedly headed towards USA

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[1] Url: https://boingboing.net/2026/07/20/californias-wild-pig-problem-started-when-a-rich-guy-imported-russian-chaos-hogs.html

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