Wholesale Pig Theft Is Sweeping The Midwest

Record prices for pork have created a new industry: Pig Rustling.

The price for a fully finished pig ready for slaughter is at an all time high. Increased demand for corn and other pig feed as well as the insatiable appetite of the ethanol industry for corn allowed mid-west farmers to collect around $ 200.00 per pig. Soaring demand worldwide for pigs and cattle have further drive up the market price for hogs.

As a consequence market ready pigs disappear from mid-western farm facilities in record numbers. One farmers lost 150 pigs on one weekend. That represents a loss of about 30,000 dollars. Close by another was relieved of about 650 hogs in one night.

The hog napping occurs in pig country in Minnesota and Iowa.

An article published by the The Wall Street Journal on September 24, 2011 adds up the numbers to at least over one thousand porkers. Though pig napping has occurred in the past, such instances were infrequent and the numbers of 'liberated' pigs small.

Farmers and authorities alike suspect that the new wholesale theft of pigs is an expression of the prevailing dire economic situation. High demand from foreign markets for meat, ever increasing demand for corn by the ethanol industry, near record high prices for market ready pigs and a steep rise in the cost of pig production all combine to this perfect storm of pig theft.

How can anyone steal dozens or even hundreds of squealing porkers from a finishing barn without being noticed? Doesn't one pig alone squeal in protest louder than the roar of a jet engine?

Yes, indeed. But farm facilities and finishing barns are usually located in desolate rural areas far away from farm houses and populated areas because of the smell and noise associated with them. In the past a padlock on the barn door was sufficient security to protect the animals inside. Not so anymore.

Local law enforcement speculates that the disappearing pigs are collected by thieves familiar with pig farms and the behavior of pigs in finishing barns. Expert pig handlers and rustlers can simply back up a large animal transport truck to the exit door of a barn, cut the padlock off and move dozens of pigs into the vehicle in minutes. It takes no more than seven minutes to drive 100 pigs into one trailer according to one farmer.

Which prompts me to wonder whether authorities in Texas could have handled their wild pig overpopulation in a similar manner. Why could they not use their precious helicopters to drive wild hogs in huge over-sized trapping pens, drive them into waiting pig transporters and ferry the squealing hogs to slaughter houses? Their meat could then be used to safely satisfy the demand from foreign countries.

After all, helicopters are used to drive wild horses into dead-end corrals.

Oh, I forgot. We are talking about wild pigs here, not docile, domesticated, mild mannered farm animals. Rounding up Texan wild pigs in a cul-de-sac and then driving them into a waiting trailer would require great personal courage. And that, my friends, is rarely found among 'hunters' in helicopters.

Just my opinion.

PJJ