BARAGA, MI-- A Baraga County Circuit Court judge has ruled in favor of a farmer who was accused by the Department of Natural Resources of raising exotic, illegal pigs.
The DNR designated Russian boar and related hybrids as invasive species in 2010, saying they were escaping from farms and ranches and causing environmental damage. Officials claimed eight of Roger Turunen’s pigs were prohibited under an Invasive Species Order.
A state appeals court previously upheld the order, but Circuit Court Judge Charles Goodman Thursday ruled the ISO was unconstitutionally vague as it applied to Turunen’s pigs. He also said the state did not actually prove any of the animals were the type prohibited by the order.
Turunen’s attorney, Joseph O’Leary, praised the ruling. He said from the beginning the ISO was designed to destroy one farmer’s effort to create and raise a new type of pig.
