When Wild Pigs Attack …

… who ya gonna call? In Texas, where feral boars run rampant, you can call a pig-killing hitman like Joe "The Dehoganator" Paddock (pictured to the left).

They do everything big in Texas. And apparently, wild pigs are a really, really big problem there. The state’s solution? Let hunters take care of the problem:

To many country-bred men like Paddock, 47, hunting wild hogs is the ultimate blood sport: a battle of wits against an ugly, wise and unpredictable foe. Anybody can shoot Bambi in the woods, they argue, but bringing down an angry 300-pound boar takes bravery. Wounded hogs can turn vengeful. Men have been gored to death by their "cutters," or razor-like tusks.

"The hog is the poor man’s grizzly," said Tommy Stroud, 45, one of Paddock’s riflemen. "If you shoot at a hog, you’d better shoot straight, because if you don’t kill it, he might try and kill you."

Still, despite an increase in part-time swine hunters like Paddock — and a thriving culture of trappers who earn thousands sating gourmet appetites for wild boar in the United States and Europe — the consensus among scholars and government officials is that the hogs are winning.

Here’s an interesting article at the LA Times by Miguel Bustillo: Link (Photo: Courtney Perry / LA Times)