CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — For the last few months, residents in the Rancho Vista subdivision, just off of Yorktown Blvd. in Corpus Christi, have been experiencing issues with feral hogs.
“I thought I was getting vandalized, like who would tear up our front yard, our grass, our trees, and everything?” said Rancho Vista resident Roxanne Garcia. “We thought it was a fluke, then the second time, we posted it on our neighborhood website, and that’s when we realized there was a hog problem.”
Garcia said her lawn was torn up multiple times, and several of her neighbors have said the same thing. However, Garcia and her fellow neighbors are most worried about the hogs attacking residents in the neighborhood.
“It’s scary, because we go out to dinner, we come home, there could be pigs right on our yard, they could try to attack us, our neighbors the same, people have younger children,” she said. “How bad would it be if we’re opening up the door, and there are just a whole bunch of them there?”
Kimberly Fuqua, another resident, is most concerned about the kids in the area. She said the other day, she saw a pack of hogs come through the neighborhood just minutes after the local kids got on the school bus. Fuqua said she is worried about one of the kids trying to interact with a younger pig, and the parents getting protective and attacking the children.
“You have an adult pig that sees that, and it might think you’re trying to harm its child, and then turn around, try to attack the child, and then you have adults trying to get the big pig,” she said. “We just want to make sure the kids are as safe as possible, and we’re doing whatever we can.”
Fuqua said she spent more than two hours chasing the animals out of the neighborhood on Monday.
“It took two and a half hours to chase just seven of them down,” she said. “There were parents out walking their kids in strollers, we had to yell at them to get out of the way, go into their homes, so they weren’t at risk of getting bit.”
The biggest issue now is: what can the residents do about it?
“There is only so much the police department can do, and animal control, because they’re wildlife,” Garcia said.
It is illegal for someone to fire a gun within the city limits.
According to Corpus Christi City Councilman Gil Hernandez, there isn’t anything the city can do, because the animals are wild. However, Hernandez said the residents can follow the rules from the Texas Animal Health Commission to capture the animals and remove them from the neighborhood.
Fuqua said she has been in contact with the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, and they have offered their help to get the animals out of the area.
