Three little pigs invade Lafayette backyard, tear lawn up at night
LAFAYETTE, Calif. (KGO) -- An East Bay homeowner is battling with wild pigs that are tearing up his lawn at night. So, what would you do?
"I looked one day and I see three little pigs in my backyard," said homeowner Carson Lee.
You read that right -- three little pigs. But it's been no fairy tale for the Lafayette resident. And he knows he can't just call the Big Bad Wolf.
For the past week, Lee's backyard has become bedtime fodder for the trio as they feast and frolic and leave behind a mangled mess on the lawn. Lee's property in the hills off of St. Mary's road does back up to open space, but his yard is fenced in.
VIDEO: Hungry wild pigs take over San Ramon neighborhoods
"We wake up in the morning and find these dug up divots in our backyard and its a mystery where they come from or where they go, but every morning we wake up and find these new holes," said Lee.
Lee's surveillance cameras have captured the pigs on several occasions over the past seven days. They apparently gain access to his backyard via a small hole in a metal fence.
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It's hard to tell on the video exactly how big they are, but an expert trapper in Santa Clara County told us they can be more than just a nuisance.
"Do not try to adopt them, they're a wild animal," said Timothy Gall, the owner of Santa Clara's Wild Pig Removal Inc. "They're unpredictable and they can be dangerous at times. It's been so hot lately, a lot of the water has dried up in the hills where they normally would stay."
In San Jose, the city council made it legal to for an expert with a state permit to trap and shoot wild pigs after a series of invasions at golf courses and in residential areas, but the laws vary by city and county.
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For now at least, Lee has opted for a non-violent method of remediation, a motion detector sprinkler that he hopes will simply scare the pigs away.
"So hopefully tonight when they come the sprinkler will just spray water and shoo them away," said Lee.
"My advice would be to call a professional," said Gall, "Every city and county has their own ordinance. Pigs are considered wild animals, game animals in the state of California. They're a nuisance to some people and in other states, they're listed as nuisance animal. But here they're a game animal and you have to follow the rules and regulations for each county."
