SAN ANTONIO — Wyatt Walton is a viral sensation. Well, he had a little help from a 411-pound feral hog, but it counts.
- Walton’s team trapped 411-pound boar
- They’ve caught 3,000 hogs since 2016
- 2 million wild boars in Texas
Walton is the founder of Lone Star Trapping and the monster catch was good for headlines, but also brought the issues with the animals back into the forefront. Roughly 2 million wild boars are in Texas. That's about half of all the species in the nation.
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“Cities like this where there's so much development. I mean, San Antonio, Austin, Houston. They're just blowing up," said Walton.
It's not shocking for Walton or his team to catch 50 hogs in a night. In fact, they've caught over 3,000 hogs since moving the company to San Antonio in 2016.“We took up refuge down here and kind of set camp just because there was so much need down here, and we've been here ever since, " Walton said.
The Texas legislature has addressed the issue, passing a new law that allows a person to shoot a feral hog without a valid hunting license. The law was meant to help landowners who found themselves losing the battle of protecting their property. Walton warns when it comes to this law, tread lightly.
"You don't have to own a license to shoot the hog if you own the property which you're hunting on. You can't just be driving down the road and see one on somebody's place and say 'Oh, I'm gonna help them out and shoot it,' said Walton. "People have to take into consideration, we're pushing on them, they're not pushing on us."