When driving around the Burnt Store Village community, you'd see spacious, well-kept homes and construction.
But recently, some of the lawns are being destroyed, and neighbors told Gulf Coast News it's being trampled on by hogs. This hog madness is leaving many residents to fork up thousands of dollars to get their lawns fixed.
However, many of the people who live in the community say it's the cause of evolution that's not helping this situation.
"You know, I feel bad for the homeowner. I really do feel bad because that's got to be expensive to repair it. But I also feel bad for the boar and the hogs because there's nowhere for them to go. They're building everywhere and they're taking their homes away," said Nancy Volpendesta, who lives in Burnt Store Village.
And it's not just in the Burnt Store Village community that folks in the Punta Gorda area are seeing these torn-up lawns. It's also seen over at the Woodland Estates along Harborside Boulevard.
"We've had some complaints from, you can see one of our community members here called just the other day, that the feral hogs came in and they removed their lawn. Most of the lawn, tore it up," said Craig Williams, HOA president of Woodland Estates.
Gulf Coast News also spoke with Burnt Store Village's HA volunteer John Taylor about just how severe some lawns are.
"Well, just behind us right here is a couple of thousand dollars just inside repair. And, like I've told other people, this does not correct the issue because the pigs are still here. That does it. They could have the sod redone today and tonight. They can come in and just rip it all up again."
Taylor also said he reached out to the county and the state to get some kind of resolution for people in the neighborhood.
"I was on the phone yesterday for about two hours trying to contact the county and try to contact the state. I've also sent an email to Representative Steube to maybe try to get involved and give us some help with this situation. The county and state said it wasn't their responsibility, and Representative Steube has yet to contact me or the association."
Gulf Coast News has also reached out to the county to see if anything on their end could be done, but has not heard back yet. However, if you find yourself in this situation, you can call trappers or hunt the hogs.
Here's a link to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's rules on wild hogs.
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