Court orders pig hunting ranches to slaughter swine

Two pig hunting businesses in the Upper Peninsula have been ordered by an Ingham County judge to slaughter some of their swine.

The December ruling followed years of legal battles pursued by the Department of Natural Resources against pig hunting operations in Michigan.

Freedom 906 and Superior Wildlife Adventures are the two defendants in the most recent lawsuit brought by the department.

The Department of Natural Resources lists Russian boar as an invasive species illegal to own. The defendents argue that the department classified pigs based on vague perceptions rather than on science.

In his ruling in favor of the Department of Natural Resources, Judge Richard Garcia gave the businesses one year to cull their swine.

The department has previosuly lost in court against other pig hunting businesses.

One court case, Turunen v. Director of Department of Natural Resources, took nine years to litigate before a judge ruled in favor of the pig farmer.

It is unclear if the defendants plan to appeal the ruling. The businesses did not respond to a request for comment.

Michael Perry, the lawyer who represents Freedom 906, told Michigan Capitol Confidential in an email that the business is working with the department, at the court’s request, on a proposed order to depopulate the herd.

Perry had requested a venue change from Ingham County to Marquette County Circuit Court, the jurisdiction where Freedom 906 is located. Ingham County is more than 400 miles from the two operations.

The judge rejected the request.

The court relied on another Michigan statute that allows the attorney general to sue in Ingham County on behalf of state agencies, regardless of where the defendant does business, Perry said.

“Both the Michigan Court of Appeals and Michigan Supreme Court denied our application for leave to appeal from that decision,” Perry said.

The department's long dispute with the hunting community was the subject of spirited June hearings in the Michigan House.

CapCon covered both hearings, during which Michigan rock legend Ted Nugent castigated the DNR for its definition of a “Russian boar” which, he said, is not genetically distinguishable from other forms of feral swine.

“There is no such species as a Russian boar,” Nugent told the committee. “A Russian boar can only be a male pig that lives in Russia.”

In a follow-up email to CapCon, Nugent criticized the Department of Natural Resources for artificially restricting hunting season and instituting “arbitrary, punitive, capricious, non-science” policies that have cost Michigan its place as America's top hunting state.

Hunting, fishing, and trapping are “the last truly environmentally beneficial duties mankind must perform,” Nugent told CapCon. “Our hearts and instincts compel us to perform our clear and obvious responsibilities to participate in God’s miraculous creation as conscientious hands-on stewards in harmony with nature. ... The embarrassment of mismanagement in my beloved birth-state of Michigan must no longer be tolerated.”

Rep. Angela Rigas, R-Alto, chairs the House Subcommittee on the Weaponization of State Government, which has held two hearings on the dispute.

“This ruling, based on junk science, is an injustice to the pig ranchers who have fought so hard to keep their businesses afloat,” said Rigas in an email to CapCon.

One of the stipulations in Garcia’s ruling is that the businesses cannot add to their herds until swine the department judges to be invasive species are culled.

Rigas noted that without being able to add to their herds, the ranchers will have to limit or shut down operations and could lose their livelihoods.

“It has been clear since the beginning that the DNR’s assault on these ranchers was based on nothing more than some personal vendetta, as none of the DNR’s arguments or actions is rooted in reality,” added Rigas.

The Department of Natural Resources did not respond to a request for comment.