Wild pigs still on the lam

A group of hogs which escaped from a West Penn Township property around the beginning of January have not been captured.

Their owner, Michael Comisac, said that the eight hogs escaped after he had moved them from their enclosure to a holding pen. He had moved the animals because they had been sold, but the hogs found a way to pry out of the pen.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Service in Harrisburg have responded and are working the case. Comisac said that at one point in the investigation, a Department of Agriculture employee shot and killed one of the male pigs.

“Five of the hogs are females and three were males; the males had been castrated when they were young,” Comisac said. “I believe they shot one of the males to verify that what I told them was true — that there would never be a chance of the pigs having a litter.”

The pigs have a dark coat and their weight is estimated at about 200 pounds.

Comisac said that the pigs are very smart and also have a superior sense of smell. Those two qualities make them hard to trap.

He said that he has placed several traps that the pigs are frequenting with growing confidence.

He has trail cameras set up at the traps, and the cameras send instantaneous images to his cellphone, night or day, letting him know when the hogs are at the traps. The traps are trailers with automatic catch gates. To date, only one or two of the animals are entering the trap at a time. Comisac wants to be patient and deploy the trap when the majority of hogs are inside.

“Once the hogs see the trap used to capture other hogs, they won’t be back, not for a long time,” he said. “I want to try to catch the majority of them when I get a chance.”

Comisac asked again for cooperation from the public.

“If people would leave the hogs alone, stop chasing them, they would relax and be easier to trap,” he said. “These animals are very important to me — I wouldn’t want to eat if I didn’t know they had food.”

Comisac said that he was hospitalized in recent weeks due to cancer surgeries and treatments but has had friends helping to keep food in the traps to attract and feed the hogs. He said that in addition to the trail cameras positioned at the traps, numerous trail cameras are located throughout the surrounding property.

“I don’t want to prosecute trespassers, but I will if I have to,” he said. “There’s no one who wants wild hogs loose in the area — myself included — and I will do what it takes to get them captured.”

Anyone who wants to report a hog sighting can call him at 570-449-6838, or contact the Pennsylvania Game Commission, southeast office, at 610-926-3136 or 610-926-3137.