Wild Pigs Tearing Up San Jose Golf Course

Wild pigs tear through greens leaving behind tracks of destruction

They're going hog wild again.

Wild pigs - which have been terrorizing suburbanites throughout the Bay Area and country - have now reared their heads, and tails, in San Jose. This time, their hooves and snouts have been tearing up a country club and some of the neighborhood that surrounds it.

But the Almaden Country Club Golf Course General Manager Robert Sparks says to fix the rumpled grass, crews would have to scrape it all away and re-seed the area - an arduous and expensive task.

"The pigs are determined, aggressive, they're stubborn and very smart," he said.

Still, his crews are trying to do everything they can to prevent the wild beasts from wreaking havoc. Club management have put up fences, treated the grass with chemicals and sealed off one of the routes they believe the pigs take from the Quicksilver Mountains onto the course. And to top if off: Some staff have even put put on overnight shifts to simply shoo the pigs away.

Wild pigs are a national problem, and in the Bay Area, they most recently have been running wild in San Ramon. In September, neighbors in the Henry Ranch neighborhood paid a trapper to try to rid their area of the pigs. But it's been a slow and not that successful process.

MORE: Horde of Pigs Goes Hog Wild in San Ramon

Sparks said  he’s contacted several government agencies – including fish and wildlife – seeking help.

A warden told NBC Bay Area that property owners can request what’s called a depredation permit. That is a permit to trap and destroy the animal creating the problem. He says a biologist has to determine whether it’s reasonable and necessary, but that process that can happen as quickly as a day.

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