The city is considering allowing members of the Oahu Pig Hunters Association to trap, capture and take the wild porcine creatures at Hoomaluhia Botanical Garden at no cost to taxpayers, Mayor Kirk Caldwell said Friday.
The City Council earlier this month passed a resolution renewing a contract for workers with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to remove the pigs from the grounds at Hoomaluhia at a cost of $53,009 a year.
But Caldwell asked that the contract signing be delayed until a review of an offer by association President Ollie Lunasco to have his members deal with the pig problem for free.
Given that the city is facing an estimated $156 million shortfall in the upcoming year’s $2 billion operating budget, it makes sense to take a hard look at the group’s offer despite initial reservations raised by the city Department of Parks and Recreation, which operates Hoomaluhia, the mayor said.
"If they can do this in a way that’s acceptable to the staff at Hoomaluhia and the public, I think we can follow that direction," he said.
The city had chosen at the end of summer not to renew its USDA contract, citing fiscal constraints.
"We thought we didn’t need it … and within two months we were finding out from the staff at Hoomaluhia that the pigs were really causing damage out there," Caldwell said.
Park officials estimate more than 200 wild pigs roam the 400-acre botanical garden and that with the USDA’s traps gone since the contract ran out on Sept. 30, the animals have become bolder, going farther into the public parts of the park, damaging plants and foliage and making campers and other park users nervous.
The mayor said he especially likes the notion that the pigs, once captured, would be consumed by the hunters or others so the animal would go to good use and not take up more space in the Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill. The USDA contract has required the animals to be disposed of in the landfill.
As the former state representative for Manoa, Caldwell said, he was involved in discussions that led to the association helping to reduce the pig population in back of the valley.
Managing Director Ember Shinn has begun talking to Lunasco while city attorneys are looking at potential liability issues, such as allowing private hunters onto the park grounds, he said.
Council member Kymberly Pine, chairwoman of the Council Intergovernmental Affairs and Human Services Committee, first broached the subject of using private pig hunters at Hoomaluhia during a committee’s hearing on Resolution 13-275, renewing the USDA contract, last month.
"It saves taxpayers money and frees up our Leeward landfill, and also allows the residents to benefit from the situation," Pine said.
Park officials said at Pine’s committee meeting that they had concerns about private hunters in the park partly because it is next to a residential neighborhood.
Lunasco said his group likely will agree to whatever conditions park officials and city attorneys want to impose. The association has numerous arrangements with government agencies and private landowners to hunt pigs throughout Oahu, he said.
Lunasco said it makes no sense to pay USDA for its hunters.
"They’re doing the same we do, but they get paid to do it," he said.
A call for volunteers is made among his organization, which has about 55 members. A list of hunters will then work an area, Lunasco said.
Dogs and guns would not be used, he said. And while he and others prefer using bows and arrows, the hunters would also agree to not use them if that is a concern and simply set box or cage traps, he said.
"We’ll abide by their rules," Lunasco said, noting that all his members are required to have valid hunting licenses. Hunters are warned that any complaints will bar them from further participation, but he has not had to boot anyone in the three years he has been president, he said.
Traps can be checked each morning by park personnel who can then inform the association to make a pickup, he said.
Mitchell Tynanes, another member of the association, said he has traps from Mililani to Hawaii Kai, Kaneohe to Pacific Palisades. While he will also use archery at times when it’s allowed, traps are more effective in capturing larger numbers of pigs.
"By bow and arrow, if you shoot one, the rest just run," he said. In one recent week he caught 29 in traps on a private property in Pacific Palisades, he said.
Association members either eat the pigs themselves, give them away or sell them, Lunasco said.
Tynanes said smaller pigs are given to families who raise them, while larger ones are smoked by his family. He sells a small amount to friends, he said, which provides some compensation to help support his hobby but does not reap him large profits.
Lunasco also dismissed concerns that eating wild pigs is unhealthy, noting that his organization has not recorded any illnesses. He added that the association has signed waivers freeing landowners from responsibility for any illnesses. His group is willing to do the same with the city, he said.
