Pig dumping a potential disease disaster

“I noticed hawks at the Painted Rockhole/ Warrigal Road and found them right next to the fence. Unfortunately this is not the first time we have seen this,” he said. 

“Places like Painted Rockhole are for locals and tourists to enjoy and shouldn’t have to drive over dead, rotten pigs to get there.

“I felt disgusted that a hunter couldn’t dump them in a discrete location or burn them like a decent pig hunter, instead dumping them on a tourist road right on the outskirts of town.”

The landholder believes the pigs were brought back from the Gulf alive but died on the drive back. The four pigs were all bound at the feet and head with atlas straps.

“The pig were too big to be caught in the local area,” he said.

“The hunters would have realised the pigs died when they checked them before town, and our property was the easiest and most convenient place to dump them.”

Feral pigs are a restricted invasive animal under the Queensland Government Biosecurity Act 2014. It states “feral pigs must not be moved, fed, given away, sold, or released into the environment without a permit.”

Southern Gulf Catchments (SGC) Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Maclean, said foot and mouth disease was the biggest worry SGC had. 

“If the feral pig population became infected it would pass the disease quite quickly to beef cattle and have detrimental affects on our economy,” Mr Maclean said.

“There is already a population of wild pigs in the Mount Isa area and it is illegal to transport them to and from without permission.

“Feral pigs create large damage to the environment from wallowing and attacking and killing native wildlife. Pigs should be shot, poisoned and trapped in the most humane way.”