88-year-old Sanford homeowner pleads for help as wild hogs tear up yard

While an on-scene reporter spoke with her, 88-year-old Mary Pressley watched a City of Sanford truck pull back onto her four-acre property in Sanford as she pleaded for help after repeated damage from wild hogs. Pressley, who has lived on the parcel since 1967 and lost her husband six years ago, said the animals have left deep rooting holes that she fears could cause her to trip or fall and have shredded landscaping, flower beds and vegetable plots.

"They started doing all that tearing up and destroying everything," Pressley said, adding the damage this year is worse than she has ever seen on the property. "It breaks your heart when you work so hard for it," she told the reporter, and she later added, "I want the rest of those pigs taken care of."

Neighbors and local hunters have been trying to stem the problem on the edges of Pressley’s yard. Professional hunter Daniel Levesque, owner of Rare Breed Fishing Charters, said he and friends have been setting traps and using a compound bow to thin the herd near the city-owned woods that Levesque identifies as the animals’ entry point. Levesque said he asked city officials last September for permission to hunt in those woods to intercept the hogs before they reached private yards, and he said the request was denied. "If there's something in particular they need out of me, I'm certain I can provide it," Levesque said. "Whether it be a hold-harm or some level of insurance, and even for that matter, some form of a lease agreement."

City of Sanford officials told the reporter they are "looking into it" while crews were observed returning to the area. The city has not provided a named official statement detailing a specific removal plan or a timeline for action, and neighbors report continued trapping efforts and barbed-wire fencing around vulnerable yards.

State wildlife figures cited in reporting underline the urgency residents feel. Florida Fish and Wildlife conservation information cited in coverage notes that wild hogs can produce as many as 26 piglets per sow annually, can grow to about six feet long and weigh up to 200 pounds, and may use sharp tusks to attack when threatened. A local Facebook post by a Sanford resident also signaled a wider neighborhood problem, saying residents off Myrtle and Hester streets "deal with the wild hogs."

Pressley’s four-acre lot, her decades of upkeep since 1967 and her status as an 88-year-old widow have framed the issue as both a personal safety concern and a neighborhood nuisance. Neighbors describe the yard as appearing like a construction site of craters and overturned soil, and Levesque maintains he remains available to work with city officials if the city opens the adjacent woods to managed removal. As officials continue to review the situation, Pressley and nearby homeowners are left with rooted holes, destroyed gardens and the expectation that city action will be needed to stop further damage.