Feral hogs in Nebraska are treated as a destroy-on-sight threat under state law. It is illegal to import, possess, or release them, and separately illegal to hunt them for sport. The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission handles eradication directly, and the state currently reports no known established wild populations, though escaped domestic pigs still turn up now and then.
Sport Hunting Is Illegal in Nebraska
This is the point that surprises people coming from other states. Many states let hunters shoot feral hogs freely, and some encourage it. Nebraska does the opposite. Under Nebraska Revised Statute 37-524.01, it is a crime to knowingly engage in, sponsor, assist, or profit from killing or wounding feral swine for sport, amusement, or trophy production.1Justia Law. Nebraska Revised Statutes 37-524.01 – Wild Pigs; Prohibited Acts; Destruction; When; Penalty That language reaches canned hunts, pay-to-shoot operations, and recreational killing of any kind.
The reasoning is practical. Once recreational hunting becomes legal, people develop a financial reason to keep feral hogs around. Some release domestic pigs into the wild to seed future hunting stock, and commercial operations charge access fees. Nebraska’s wildlife managers concluded that removing those incentives works better than relying on hunters to thin populations one animal at a time. Eradication is handled instead by the Game and Parks Commission, which has broad authority over state wildlife resources under NRS 37-301,2Nebraska Legislature. Nebraska Revised Statutes 37-301 – Commission working with USDA Wildlife Services. Helicopter-based aerial removal has been the most successful method in the state.
Possessing, Importing, or Releasing Feral Hogs
A separate statute, NRS 37-524, makes it illegal to import or possess any wild vertebrate the commission has declared a serious threat to economic or ecological conditions. Feral hogs fall squarely under that rule. The same statute bans releasing any nonnative mammal into the wild without written commission authorization.3Nebraska Legislature. Nebraska Code 37-524 – Wild or Nonnative Animals; Importation, Possession, or Release; Prohibition; Violation; Penalty
There is one narrow opening. The commission may issue a specific written permit allowing someone to acquire and possess a prohibited species for educational or scientific purposes. These permits are case-by-case and require a demonstrated research or educational need. Anyone holding feral swine without that written authorization faces the same criminal exposure as anyone else.
What Landowners Can Do
Landowners do not have a standing right to shoot any pig they find. Under NRS 37-524.01, the commission may authorize landowners as agents to destroy and dispose of feral swine on their property, but the authorization is discretionary.1Justia Law. Nebraska Revised Statutes 37-524.01 – Wild Pigs; Prohibited Acts; Destruction; When; Penalty The right move after a sighting is to contact the commission first, not to assume blanket permission.
The definition of “feral swine” matters here. The statute covers pigs that have clearly reverted from a domesticated state to a wild state, or freely roaming swine with no visible tags, markings, or characteristics indicating they belong to a domestic herd, where reasonable local inquiry does not identify an owner. Nebraska still sees occasional escaped pet or domestic pigs, and shooting a neighbor’s potbelly pig carries very different legal consequences from destroying an authorized feral animal.
Penalties
Nebraska sets two different penalty levels depending on which rule you break.
Importing, possessing, or releasing feral hogs under NRS 37-524 is a Class IV misdemeanor. The maximum penalty is a $500 fine with no imprisonment.3Nebraska Legislature. Nebraska Code 37-524 – Wild or Nonnative Animals; Importation, Possession, or Release; Prohibition; Violation; Penalty
Sport hunting, sponsoring, or profiting from killing feral swine under NRS 37-524.01 is a Class II misdemeanor. The maximum penalty is six months in jail, a $1,000 fine, or both.4Nebraska Legislature. Nebraska Code 28-106 – Classification of Misdemeanors; Penalties
The heavier penalty for sport hunting reflects a policy judgment that the real threat is not a farmer who accidentally harbors a feral pig but someone deliberately maintaining or exploiting feral hog populations. Organizing a canned hunt, for instance, violates the sport-hunting ban and almost certainly stacks additional charges for illegal possession and transport.
Federal Transport Rules
Federal law adds a separate layer that matters if feral swine cross state lines. Under the Lacey Act (18 U.S.C. ยง 42), importing injurious wildlife into the United States or shipping it between states, territories, or possessions without a Fish and Wildlife Service permit is a federal crime, punishable by up to six months in prison, a federal fine, or both.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 42 – Importation or Shipment of Injurious Mammals, Birds, Fish, and Reptiles The Lacey Act also broadly prohibits buying, selling, or transporting any wildlife taken in violation of state law, so moving feral hogs out of Nebraska in violation of state prohibitions brings federal charges on top of the state ones.
How to Report a Sighting
If you see feral hogs in Nebraska, report them. Contact the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission at (402) 471-5174, or email the Nebraska Invasive Species Project at invasives@unl.edu. Timely reporting matters because even a small group can reproduce quickly and cause real damage before wildlife managers locate them.
Do not try to trap, hunt, or relocate the animals yourself. Beyond the legal exposure, feral swine are dangerous and carry diseases transmissible through direct contact. Commission personnel and their federal partners use methods built to eliminate the entire group rather than scatter animals across a wider area, which is what untrained pursuit tends to do.
Why Nebraska Takes This Approach
The strict framework exists because of what feral hogs do wherever they establish themselves. They root through soil for food, tearing up crop fields, pastures, lawns, and gardens, and they cause serious erosion along riverbanks and streams. A single group can destroy acres of cropland in a few nights and will return to the same areas once they have a foraging pattern. They also eat native plants and small animals, and their rooting churns soil in ways that favor invasive plants, creating habitat damage that outlasts the animals themselves.
Water contamination is one of the less visible impacts. Research by the USDA’s National Wildlife Research Center and Auburn University found watersheds with feral swine had E. coli levels 40 times higher than comparable watersheds without them, along with elevated dissolved organic carbon and total nitrogen attributable to feral swine feces.6Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. NWRC Spotlight – Feral Swine Impacts to Water Quality In an agricultural state where streams and rivers support irrigation and cattle, even a small population near a watershed could cause outsized problems.
Feral swine also carry pathogens that threaten cattle and people, including brucellosis, pseudorabies, leptospirosis, and pathogenic E. coli and Salmonella. These can cause weight loss, abortions, infertility, and death in cattle, and a single positive test for certain diseases can trigger mandatory quarantine of an operation.7Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Feral Swine Disease Risks to Cattle Brucellosis in people causes flu-like symptoms including intermittent fever, chills, joint pain, and fatigue.8Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Brucella suis Infection Associated with Feral Swine Hunting That combination of agricultural, ecological, and public health risk is why Nebraska keeps the laws strict even without an established population to point to.