Thousands of Vietnamese pigs roam Puerto Rico in what appears to be an unstoppable march to feed and breed on an island that must work hard to contain them.
Pigs scurry for food in gardens and farms, overturn trash cans and leave a smelly trail of urine and feces, with the occasional stopover to bathe in rain-filled pits. Old pets or their offspring reproduce so quickly that the island declared a health emergency last year so federal authorities could begin to exterminate them.
It is the most recent non-native species to invade communities in Puerto Rico, as has happened with iguanas and alligators before, although pigs are particularly difficult to control and cannot be slaughtered for food as they carry numerous diseases.
Teams from Georgia, Alabama and Florida helped remove 500 pigs in four days in August, but the animals are so numerous and so widespread that authorities had to meet to come up with a new plan they launched a few weeks ago, Gustavo said Olivieri, Assistant Supervisor for the Caribbean District with the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service of the United States Department of Agriculture.
Olivieri, referring to hundreds of pigs concentrated in a poor neighborhood of San Juan, the capital, said authorities realized there were many more animals than expected.
The problem started about five years ago when people started buying pigs as pets without knowing they grew to 115 kilograms or more. Olivieri says the pigs multiplied when powerful Hurricane Maria hit the island in September 2017, as some pigs escaped confinement and others were released by their owners.
Although there are no official figures, Olivieri estimates that there are now thousands of Vietnamese pigs roaming Puerto Rico, with 67 of the 78 municipalities reporting seeing them.