John Schmidt’s reputation precedes him.
The St. Rose native known as “Trapper John the Hog Man” has been trapping animals for nearly 50 years, starting when he was just a boy, and by the time he turned 18 he was onto trapping wild hogs.
His skills are often in demand, and such is the case these days. The City of Kenner has called upon Schmidt to address the area’s growing population – and problem – of wild hogs and coyotes. The city has contracted him for a month-long project.
Not too many animal trappers can boast Schmidt’s resume, who has helped control and clear out the hog population in St. Charles Parish. But Kenner has also seen what he can do firsthand; Schmidt has cleared thousands of animals to improve the safety of the Louis Armstrong International Airport. Schmidt has estimated he caught over 200 pigs and over 20,000 birds alive and transplanted them elsewhere, which shifted what he called one of the most dangerous airports with regards to animal strikes to one of the safest.
The trapper has done work for customers ranging from an elderly couple who had armadillos tearing up their garden, large corporations like Retention Pond Services, Inc. and the New Orleans International Airport, to assisting government agencies like New Orleans’ City Park. Schmidt estimates he has removed over 2,000 feral hogs which were causing major damage to the area’s flood control system levees alone:
many under permit from the U.S Fish and Wildlife Services. He estimates he has eradicated over 5,000 wild hogs and claims a 100 percent success rate in wild hog mitigation and abatement.
He has garnered fame with his appearances on TV shows on MTV, National Geographic and Animal Planet. He also did some behind-the-scenes work with Steve Irwin on “The Crocodile Hunter.”
Schmidt began trapping bugs as a boy and moved up the food chain after his father bought him a bird trap.
“When I was just a baby, I was just fascinated with bugs, doodlebugs, worms, anything under the lights,” Schmidt said. “Then I saw birds, and my dad saw the interest and he knew stuff about it. He built me a bird trap when I was six – and from then on, that was it.”
He then moved on to learning how to trap hogs by trial and error. He learned their traits and how the typical hog reacts, and began using
that information to successfully trap them. Although Schmidt started off slowly at first, he quickly began to innovate using knowledge he picked up from a variety of other jobs – by learning trade work, Schmidt strengthened his ability to build traps that work for large animals, such as hogs and coyotes.
His next task is to make Kenner safer.
Hogs and coyotes have been appearing on the city streets and damaging property. Schmidt said the problem began a few months ago.
“It was before Francine, months ago. The whole lakefront on the Labranche wetlands went underwater. And they’ve got pigs in those wetlands … so when that water came up, they had two choices, swim to Airline Highway and get on the levee, or they could cross and try to
get into Kenner,” Schmidt said.
Many chose the latter, which is where Schmidt comes in.
Coyotes rarely attack humans – though it does happen, he said. But they’re serious threats to pets.
And hogs, he said, are a much different story.
“If that pig feels like he’s trapped, he’s gonna attack you – and he’ll hurt you bad,” Schmidt said. “He might kill you. Don’t ever let
a pig get you on the ground.”
Schmidt said that over the past few years, he’s stayed busy, catching hundreds of pigs in the area.
He’s also relocated – Schmidt moved to Kansas two years ago, in part because of repeated damage and insurance hikes incurred due to major storms over the past several years. While he still sees plenty of work locally, he’s made a new home.
“It’s absolutely wonderful,” Schmidt said of life in Kansas. “It’s a paradise. I miss speckled trout, I miss crawfish … but I do like to hunt, and Kansas has excellent hunting. I can do it off of my front porch, I can do it off of my back porch. Animals are everywhere.”
