THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 31, 1995 TAG: 9505310013
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LAWRENCE MADDRY
LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
SHOULD YOU be sleeping with a gun under your pillow?
Could they be crashing onto your back porch any day now, busting through the door and ripping your entire family to pieces?.
Forget the Middle-Eastern terrorists. Forget the Ryder trucks filled with explosives.
We are talking wild, red-eyed, feral, jack-booted Godzilla pigs.
And nobody cares except good ole Kirby Burch, our state director of conservation. Imagine his point of view:
The U.S. Marines sit on their butt doing nothing about the pigs. The police are taking a coffee break, and meanwhile about 100 of the Godzilla pigs roam free in False Cape State Park and Back Bay National Wildlife refuge threatening life and property.
Only good ole Kirby Burch, our yee-hah, pistol-packing sportsman of the year has seen the danger and stands guard between the lethal porkers and your loved ones.
Or so it would seem.
Remember how ole Kirby gunned down two of the wild pigs while leading a caravan of state officials through False Cape State Park?
Remember how the governor slapped his wrist for that? Now we learn that Kirby shot a sow and left her bleeding and suffering as he drove away in his vehicle.
How easy it is to take offense at that. How easy to characterize what ole Kirby did as the conduct of an arrogant, insensitive, brutish oaf.
But no, there was a reason for what ole Kirby did.
He told investigators that he would have put the wounded sow out of its misery but had only one bullet left in his gun: ``One bullet left which might be needed for protection from other feral pigs,'' we were told.
It makes sense, unless you speak with someone familiar with the feral pigs that roam in and out of the state and national parks in Virginia Beach.
One is Joe McCauley, acting director of Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Asked about the feral pigs, the superintendent described them as ``very shy.''
What does that mean? ``It means if the pigs see you they run away and usually look for cover,'' he said. It turns out that park rangers, exposed to the pigs ole Kirb regards as life-threatening, see no need to carry firearms. If a pig sees a ranger or anyone else it just skitters away.
People who live near the park and see the pigs more often than others say the best thing to do if you see a feral pig is space your feet wide apart and cup your hands around your mouth. Then yell ``Shoo pig!'' That really scares 'em something awful and they bolt for the brush.
As a matter of fact, there is no record of anyone having been injured by a pig in Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge.
But that doesn't mean Kirb didn't feel threatened by the pigs. It is wrong to pre-judge a man unless you stand in his shoes. Some of us become frightened weenies when confronted with wild pigs, turkeys or chickens. Some do not. Maybe one of the pigs went over to where our pistol-packing conservation director was parked and oinked.
Or maybe one peed on his tire!
Or maybe Kirb ran down one of the little piglets in the park and swept it up in his arms, sizing it for a large barbecue bun. The sows will rush out to frighten people who do that. But they don't have tusks. And they don't harm people. by CNB