LANSING, Mich. — About a month before his fiery testimony against the state's Department of Natural Resources, conservative rocker Ted Nugent beat the agency in court on allegations that he was illegally hosting hunts of Russian boar.

Nugent's was one of six Michigan facilities in 2021 targeted by an undercover operation in which DNR officers participated in hog hunts under false names. Afterward, the DNR sued four hunting ventures to stop their operations on the allegation that they were using Russian boar or a Russian boar hybrid, which the DNR named an invasive species in 2010.

A judge in May ruled the hogs killed at Nugent’s and one other location were closer to domesticated pigs and thus the locations couldn’t be sued. The other two hunting ventures, the judge said, were keeping Russian boar.

Nugent said in a statement that the undercover operation was a foolish and "cowardly" waste of tax dollars "to come to the same scientific and biological conclusion" about the species of pig kept at Sunrize Acres, also known as Sunrize Safaris, in Hanover, which is southwest of Jackson.

"It is always heartbreaking and frustrating when those in wildlife agencies falsely accuse and attack those citizens dedicated to true scientific-based conservation," Nugent said. "Just another example of the weaponization of government agencies that is rampant and ubiquitous across the land."

The dispute is the latest chapter in a nearly 15-year invasive species debate that has pitted some hog farmers and game hunting locations against the DNR’s efforts to prevent the spread of feral hogs, which can be detrimental to native wildlife, agricultural crops and domestic livestock.

"Where they have become established in other states, they are impossible to eradicate through hunting," Michigan DNR spokesman Ed Golder said about feral swine.

The long-simmering battle between hog owners and the DNR has become the topic in recent weeks of at least two House committees focusing on the department's actions. On Tuesday, the House Oversight Committee issued a subpoena for information related to the DNR's investigation of the hog hunting locations.

At issue is a debate — which has played out in department orders, courtrooms and legislative hearings — over what separates a domestic or heritage breed of pig from the more destructive, invasive breeds the DNR hopes to prevent from spreading. That destructive breed is often referred to as Russian boar, Eurasian boar, razorback, feral swine or wild boar.

Additionally, some Republican lawmakers have argued the state's wild hog crackdown has more to do with opposition to high-fence hunting operations, where larger-bred hogs are used as game, than a true threat from feral swine. The hogs currently being used at the hunting facilities are biologically bred to resemble a wilder breed, but aren't the same thing as feral swine illegally transported from out of state, the facilities' operators said.

"We had a real problem and then we had what the DNR wanted to accomplish, which was to eliminate these high-fence hunting operations," said state Sen. Ed McBroom, a Vulcan Republican who has watched the fight unfold between UP breeders and the DNR for more than a decade.

Wild pigs are the "perfect invasive species" that can live anywhere, eat anything, reproduce at a "wild rate" and cause significant damage to agriculture and domestic herds, said Jack Mayer, who has studied wild pigs for decades and consulted for the state on the issue in the early 2000s. But Mayer acknowledged the task of shutting down wild boar operations is "complicated" and, at times, has implicated responsible actors who have kept pigs that resemble wild boar.

"What the DNR is trying to do in stopping the establishment of invasive wild pigs and shutting off the source is a good thing," said Mayer, technical program manager for the Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina and co-author of the 2008 book "Wild Pigs in the United States: Their History, Comparative Morphology, and Current Status."

"But like I said," he added, "there were some folks playing by the rules who were hurt by this."

UP farmers, facilities push back

Baraga County Prosecutor Joseph O'Leary had his first brush with feral swine in 2002, when he began receiving calls that wild swine were "overrunning" Point Abbaye along the Lake Superior shoreline.

An individual with a hunting location nearby had brought wild swine up from southern states and dropped them behind a "woefully inadequate" fence, O'Leary said. About 60 hogs had broken loose and were causing havoc in the area, he said.

O'Leary reached out to state regulators and was bounced between the state departments of agriculture as well as natural resources and even the office of Republican then-Gov. John Engler. When he was unable to get direction from the state, he told residents that if they were lawfully in the woods and lawfully in possession of a firearm and came into contact with a feral hog, they should shoot it.

"It worked, literally. In a matter of days, the phone calls stopped," O'Leary told lawmakers last month. "It's reported to me — I didn't participate — but I understand there were pig roasts all over Point Abbaye."

That was the last O'Leary heard of the issue until the Department of Natural Resources in 2010 added Russian boar and Russian boar hybrids to an invasive species order.

That's about the time he heard from Roger Turunen, a pig farmer in Baraga County who said the DNR was using the invasive species order to target his swine.

Turunen, with O'Leary serving as counsel outside his role as prosecutor, sued the DNR in 2012, arguing the agency's invasive species order was too broad and improperly netted his pigs, which were neither wild nor Russian, but were intentionally bred to look like wild pigs and dubbed the "Hogan hog."

"The hunting ranches liked them because they looked hairy and scary, but they were very domestic animals," O'Leary said.

Savannah River's Mayer consulted with the DNR and even testified before the Michigan Legislature in the 2010s on the issue. He noted that around that time there were bad actor high-fence operations who were "leaking" hogs that would then be free to roam and spread through Michigan. The DNR had to take aggressive action to control the population, while trying to avoid orders that netted domestic heritage breeds — a balancing act that sometimes depended on the shape of a pig's ears and nose, the color of its bristles or the straightness of its tail.

"You had a few people that were not playing by the rules," Mayer said. "The problem is you’ve also got farmers that have heritage herds that have perhaps some Eurasian wild boar in them, or at least they have the characteristics of wild boar hybrids.”

In 2021, the Michigan Court of Appeals upheld the constitutionality of the DNR's invasive species order but found eight pigs identified in 2016 as Russian boars on Turunen’s farm did not meet all of the criteria of a Russian boar or hybrid as detailed in the invasive species order. The pigs were already dead at that point, but Turunen still treated it as a victory and continues to raise the Hogan hog.

A few months after the 2021 opinion, the DNR targeted six hunting properties, most of which, at some point, had sourced hogs from Turunen.

DNR undercover op 'fries my bacon'

In fall of 2021, the DNR deployed undercover conservation officers to at least six separate hog hunting locations, using false names, cover stories and cash or money orders for the excursions.

In one case, at Superior Wildlife Adventures in the Upper Peninsula’s Cornell, the conservation officers told the facility they wanted to pay with cash because they didn’t want their wives, who were on a shopping trip, to know they’d spent money on a hunting excursion, said Cody Wehner, an owner of the facility.

The hunting locations remained unaware of the DNR’s visit to their properties until April 2023, when they were served with a summons and complaint for keeping Russian boar. Five locations were named in the Ingham County Circuit Court suit: David’s Hog Wild in Northland in the U.P.; Freedom Ranch 906 in the U.P.'s Cornell; Superior Wildlife in Cornell; Trophy Ranch in Ubly in the Thumb area; and Sunrize Acres in Hanover, which is run by Nugent. Trophy Ranch was eventually dismissed from the case.

The use of undercover agents has drawn scrutiny from lawmakers and others involved in the case, who have questioned the need for an undercover operation on the issue of feral swine.

"That’s what really fries my bacon," said O'Leary, who now represents Superior Wildlife and David's Hog Wild. "They’re treating them like methamphetamine dealers when all they had were pigs that never hurt anyone.”

State Rep. Angela Rigas, a Caledonia Republican who chairs an oversight committee monitoring the weaponization of state government, said she has questions about the operation for which she is seeking answers from the DNR.

"It's not transparent," Rigas said.

The DNR's Golder said officers booked publicly advertised hunts at six separate game ranches and paid in full.

"They didn’t identify themselves as DNR officers, which is consistent practice for undercover officers to protect their own safety and the integrity of future undercover operations," Golder said.

The Michigan Pork Producers Association declined to comment on the DNR's enforcement actions but noted the group fully supports the invasive species order.

The group has been working since the early 2000s to address the issue of wild boar escaping from farm or hunting facilities and causing damage, including the spreading of diseases to domestic pigs, said Mary Kelpinski, CEO of the Michigan Pork Producers Association. The order allowed the DNR to take swift action and crack down on escaped feral swine, she said.

"It’s been working," Kelpinski said. "We’re not seeing the sitings that we were in 2010, but there are still some hot spots down in the Jackson area and up in the U.P.”

Split court decision

In Ingham County court, the hunting facilities argued that there is no clear way to distinguish between a Russian wild boar or Russian boar hybrid and domestic pigs, such as the Hogan hog, that are bred to resemble a wilder breed.

Nugent questioned whether Russian boar could even be dubbed a species when testifying last month before a Republican-led House committee.

“A Russian boar can only be a male pig that lives in Russia, it's not a species," he said. "I asked them, ‘Would you sue me for having pterodactyls? Because I have as many pterodactyls as I have feral Russian boars.”

The hunting locations also questioned the DNR's genetic testing used to identify traces of Russian boar within swine, which is meant to identify both Russian boar or a hybrid created by crossbreeding Russian boar with domestic breeds. But the state officials argued the testing method is legitimate and was created by a team of scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Feral Swine Genetic Archive.

The USDA team of scientists published a paper on their findings as recently as February 2024, and concluded that the test "provides a scientific foundation to enforce regulations prohibiting the possession of this destructive invasive species."

In May, nearly four years after the DNR went undercover at the properties, Ingham County Judge Richard Garcia agreed that the hogs at Sunrize Acres and David’s Wild Hog only “appeared to be” Russian boar or a Russian boar hybrid and were not actually either. Both Sunrize and David's Wild Hog had purchased Hogan hogs from Turunen.

However, the hogs from Freedom Ranch and Superior Wildlife, Garcia ruled, are Russian boars or hybrids based on their appearance. Garcia ordered the DNR to visit the hunting facilities within 60 days to separate those hogs at the locations that are Russian boars or hybrids, based on appearance, and depopulate them. The farms could challenge an appearance-based selection by requesting a DNA test, the judge added. The farms will pay a $250 fine per Russian boar or Russian boar hybrid identified.

In making his decision in May, the judge relied only on the hogs’ physical characteristics and did not rely on the DNR's genetic testing method. Garcia didn't question the reliability of the testing, but said it should have been publicized prior to use or adopted through the administrative rules procedure before being applied to cases. The DNR has since published information on the genetic test on its website.

“While this court thankfully was not presented with the carcass of the animals, a review of the detailed photographs definitely establishes by a preponderance of the evidence that each of these defendants possessed at least one Russian boar or Russian boar hybrid,” Garcia wrote of the hogs taken at Freedom Ranch and Superior Wildlife.

The judge noted the hogs from Superior had an arched back, carried more weight in their shoulders, had light-tipped bristles and dark dorsal points.

“The specimen could have been used by the DNR on its website as a prime example of a Russian Boar or Russian boar hybrid,” Garcia wrote.

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