Pennsylvania's wildlife is in danger of being overrun by feral hogs, a non-native species that is adaptive to virtually all environments and is a prolific breeder.

"This is not an animal we want living in the wild," Walter Cottrell, staff veterinarian for Pennsylvania Game Commission, told the agency's board of commissioners Tuesday.

Wild, self-sustaining populations of feral hogs have been identified in different parts of Pennsylvania, including Tioga, Butler, Bedford, Bradford, and Columbia counties.

Until December, the Game Commission, along with the state Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Agriculture, had been aggressively trying to eradicate the hogs by trapping and killing them. Also, anyone was allowed to shoot the hogs on sight, with or without a hunting license.

Because of a December Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling, however, it is now up to the Game Commission to regulate the hunting of the feral hogs just like it does any other animal, like deer.

The game commissioners are expected to vote today to allow only licensed hunters to shoot wild hogs during all deer seasons and during the state's bear and fall turkey seasons.

Cottrell said he believes it's likely the wild hog populations will spread rapidly across the state should those hunting seasons be the sole method of population control.

"It has been the experience of other states that there may in fact be a point of no return where control is concerned," he said.

An estimated 3 million wild hogs live in 23 states, Cottrell said.

About 1,000 hogs are believed to be living in the wild in Pennsylvania.

According to Cottrell, wild populations most likely were started here by hogs that escaped or were intentionally released from hunting preserves and barnyards.

Prior to Dec. 27, wild hogs in Pennsylvania could be shot by anyone at any time of the year because the Game Commission maintained the animals did not fall under the agency's control.

The state Supreme Court ruled Dec. 27 that wild hogs should be classified as "protected mammals," which means they can only be killed during established hunting seasons.

That ruling was handed down in a case in which Johnna Seeton, an officer with Pennsylvania Legislative Animal Network, sued the Game Commission for not regulating the hunting of wild hogs inside fenced hunting preserves.

The Game Commission argued that hogs are considered domestic animals, which the agency has no regulatory control over.

The Supreme Court agreed that hogs raised and kept in captivity, like those inside fenced hunting preserves, are not subject to Game Commission rules.

The Supreme Court, however, also sided with Seeton's contention that hogs living in the wild are no longer domestic animals and therefore must be considered "protected mammals."

Until the Game Commission establishes a hunting season for wild hogs, they cannot legally be killed in the wild.

Cottrell said wildlife managers all over the country fear the hogs because they are destructive feeders that can damage crops and wetlands with their rooting.

They also are voracious feeders that will consume large quantities of forest mast that otherwise would be eaten by native game animals like deer and turkeys.

Wild hogs also can quickly multiply because sows typically have two litters per year of anywhere from four to six piglets per litter.

Feral hogs also can adversely affect people because the animals are known to carry a variety of bacteria, including E. coli.

Government workers deployed to find the source of a E. Coli outbreak in 2006 that was thought to be tied to organic spinach farms in California suggested the bacteria might have been carried into spinach crops by wild hogs.

The best way to control hog populations, Cottrell said, is to trap and kill them.

USDA teams had been doing that in Pennsylvania the past two years, he said, capturing 36 in 2007.

But there's no more funding for that program, according to Cottrell, unless Congress appropriates more money this year.

Officials from a number of state agencies, including the Game Commission, plan to lobby Congress for that funding.

If the money doesn't come through, establishing hunting seasons for wild hogs is better than doing nothing, Cottrell said.

"Opportunistic taking is a method we should not ignore," he said.

E-mail: preilly@lnpnews.com