Wild Hogs Search and Destroy

Feral hogs are on a rampage in a Fort Worth neighborhood, leaving a path of destruction behind.

Merely one day after landscapers fixed Jeanie Turek's yard, feral hogs hit it again.

"I had to call him again today and say, 'Can you come back? We've been hit again,'" she said.

The feral hogs didn't stop at Turek's yard; they also damaged neighboring yards in their overnight rampage.

Turek said she has to fix her lawn each time it happens or face steep fines from the River Bend Estate's Homeowner's Association.

"We have thousands of dollars worth of damage right here," she said.

Turek and many of her neighbors moved into the neighborhood on the south banks of the Trinity River because of the beautiful wildlife.

"On the other side, there's a wildlife preserve, as well as city parks, so it's all park land to the north of us, and they are obviously coming in from the Trinity, and it's not fenced so they are going to keep coming," said Turek's neighbor, Larry Poling.

Poling spotted five pigs late in the night and scared them off.

"It sounded like a stampede of cattle just running by the side of the house -- scared me," Turek said.

Feral hogs feed at night and look for grub worms, pecans, acorns and roots, according to Texas Parks and Wildlife.

Turek called Fort Worth Animal Services but said the agency was little help.

"They told us that they didn't deal with wild hogs and so they told us to call the police department," she said.

But Fort Worth police will only respond to such a call if the hog is on the premises.

It's illegal for residents to shoot a wild hog within city limits.

Turek called a trapper who told her it would not make sense to have one trap at one house. He then recommended she call her homeowner's association and ask  them to put traps in the entire neighborhood.

"You hardly ever trap them all," said Capt. Neal Bieler, a Texas Parks and Wildlife game warden. "You may push them out of an area, and they may be gone for a year or two, and they could show up again."

The City Council is looking into ways to help homeowners keep feral hogs away because they have become a growing problem for the city.

But the council is concerned about how to fund a new program, as well as the amount of time it will take to implement it.

Turek said she is at a loss.

"We've got to have some help," she said. "We don't know what to do."