DNR’s Undercover Sting on Ted Nugent’s Pigs Ends in Surprising Ruling

Well, Michigan, hold onto your pork rinds—because the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) just went full "Mission: Impossible" on Ted Nugent's backyard, only to discover that the dangerous, invasive Russian boars they were hunting...we're just really ugly domestic pigs.

RELATED: Open Season On Wild Boars: What You Need To Know

The Undercover DNR Operation

Yes, back in 2021, DNR officers went undercover (fake names, cash payments, and very trusting hunting ranches) to investigate whether six Michigan game farms, including Nugent's Sunrize Acres in Hanover, were illegally offering hunts for feral swine.

These hair horrors—Russian boars and their hybrid cousins—have been classified as invasive species in Michigan since 2010. But after a four-year legal pork roast, Ingham County Judge Richard Garcia ruled in May that the hogs on Ted's land weren't feral, they just looked like they were.

Legal Pork Roast: Court Battle Explained

Two farms, including Nugents, were cleared. The other two? Still bacon bits. According to Mahoning Matters, they've got 60 days to let the DNR ID and "depopulate" their wild swine, or appeal with a DNA test (because yes, pig DNA testing is apparently a thing now).

Nugent’s Reaction & Public Debate

Nugent, in his ever-subtle way, called the undercover sting "cowardly" and a waste of taxpayer dollars. Meanwhile, the DNR maintains it was just protecting Michigan from a feral pig-pocalypse.

RELATED: Michigan's BLEAK 2024 Deer Harvest: County By County Breakdown

The debate is now sizzling in Lansing as to whether or not these pigs are an animal version of cosplay or if they are actual invasive menaces. Cue the hearings, lawsuits, and legislative eye rolls.

Michigan’s History with Wild Swine

And the most Michigan part of this whole thing? It all started because some hogs broke out in Baraga County and crashed a few UP parties back in 2002. Welcome to Michigan: land of lakes, lumber, legal hog drama, and Ted Nugent.