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Chinn defends department’s stance on feral hogs

Two state representatives from southern Missouri have criticized Missouri’s Ag Department director at a recent hearing over her stance on feral hog eradication.

At a House budget committee hearing Monday, Director Chris Chinn says she supports the U-S Forest Service decision to close the Mark Twain National Forest to feral hog hunting. She testified feral hogs are a threat to Missouri livestock and all of agriculture. She says it’s her department’s job to protect against disease,

“A lot of these livestock eat the corn and the soybean that are raised on many of these farms. And if we should have a disease threat like that hit Missouri, it’s not only going to hit the livestock industry, it’s going to hit our row crop as well as our grain elevators.”

Representative Robert Ross, along with Scott Cupps, says their southern Missouri constituents should be allowed to hunt for feral hogs in the Mark Twain National Forest and that the Ag Director should not support the feral hog hunting ban, “That’s what really surprised me, that your agency would take a position that was directly in opposition of working with private landowners, following along with the misguided approach that Missouri Department of Conservation is now pushing.”

Chinn testified that the Missouri Conservation Department has shown that the hunting approach hasn’t worked and that feral hog numbers have increased.

~Missourinet’s Brian Hauswirth contributed to this story~