Silent but deadly: Texas will allow hunters to kill pigs from hot air balloons

Texas is to introduce a novel solution to its abundance of unwanted feral pigs by allowing people to shoot the animals from hot air balloons.

The state senate has passed a bill that permits the targeting of feral hogs and coyotes from hot air balloons following concerns that hunting them from helicopters, which is already allowed, has been unsuccessful because the noise scares the porcine interlopers away.

Mark Keough, a state Republican, said last month that the hot air balloon approach would help hunters outwit the “smart” feral hogs.

“We’ve got a problem here, and we are willing to fix it ourself,” he said. “We have that western, swashbuckling, cowboying type of way to deal with things. It’s part of the culture. It’s different than any other state.”

Hogs were introduced to Texas more than 300 years ago, probably by early Spanish explorers for meat. A burgeoning feral population of more than 2m has developed after several of the tusked animals escaped captivity, with their opportunistic feeding blamed for about $50m in damages a year from devoured and uprooted crops.

Feral hogs have made themselves at home in parks and golf courses, raising the ire of Texan lawmakers who have sought ways to control the animals’ rampages. In February, the state unveiled a controversial plan to end what it called the “hog apocalypse” by poisoning the animals with warfarin – a slow-acting pesticide that causes a prolonged, painful death when consumed. Animal rights activists condemned the plan as cruel.

Several southern states have grappled with the issue of invasive species that have disrupted local ecosystems and in some cases outcompeted native species. In Florida, a restaurant recently opened in Miami Beach to serve up a range of unwelcome animals, including feral pigs, lionfish and Asian carp.

The bill authorizing hot air balloon hunting will go to Greg Abbott, the Texas governor, to sign.