The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) joined the Ohio Pork Council and the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation in filing a friend-of-the-court brief in support of Ohio’s effort to reinstate a law that prohibits the importation and hunting of feral swine and wild boar and eliminates the practice of feeding swine garbage in the state.
The groups are asking the Ohio Supreme Court to take up a case involving a hunting business and reverse a state appellate court ruling against the Ohio law. The statute was approved by the Ohio legislature to protect the state’s residents, farmers and businesses from diseases and economic risks posed by feral swine and wild boar.
The lower court enjoined the law because it ruled it is unconstitutional under a “void-for-vagueness” doctrine and amounts to an unconstitutional taking from the hunting business.
In their brief, NPPC, Ohio Pork and the Ohio Farm Bureau argue that the feral swine law is not vague since it clearly outlaws possessing, hunting and feeding feral swine and wild boar.
“Alleged difficulties in complying with a law do not render [it] unconstitutionally vague,” they said. On the taking issue, the organizations argue that the remedy is not to enjoin the law but for the hunting business to seek compensation under the U.S. or Ohio constitution.
The groups are asking the Ohio Supreme Court to take up a case involving a hunting business and reverse a lower court ruling against the Ohio law. The statute was approved by the Ohio legislature to protect the state’s residents, farmers and businesses from diseases and economic risks posed by feral swine and wild boar.
They also contend the lower court’s ruling “runs afoul of the State’s interest in enforcing duly enacted laws” and “creates a conflict amongst the [state’s] courts of appeals regarding whether an entire legislative enactment can be enjoined or only the actual statutes that became law can be enjoined.” Click here to read NPPC’s brief.
Why it Matters
Ohio’s feral swine law was intended to protect the state’s farmers and Ohio’s $3.5 billion pork industry from diseases carried by feral swine and wild boar. According to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, feral swine and wild boar cause an estimated $1.6 billion in annual agricultural losses in the United States. NPPC and the other groups pointed out that a recent outbreak in domestic pigs of pseudorabies originating in wild boar led to a partial halt of pork exports to Mexico.
