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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Mandy McKeesick

‘When they stick their heads out they get a bullet’: the trials of managing Australia’s feral pigs

Farmer Scott Stewart of Coolootai Station in northern New South Wales, Australia
‘If you don’t get on top of feral pigs they can wipe out acres’: farmer Scott Stewart of Coolootai Station in northern NSW. Photograph: Simon Scott/The Guardian

The video is taken down the barrel of a rifle. In the frame is a dog wearing chest and neck protection, harrying a wild boar. The tall dry grass, among straggly bush and scattered termite mounds typical of far north Queensland, obscures the action. The dog barks and circles then leaps from lethal tusks as the cornered beast charges. “That’ll do,” says a voice. The dog stands off. A single shot sounds and the boar falls.

The voice belongs to a woman named Natasha, who asked that her surname not be used.

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