The Feed join Miss Bacon Busters 2013 Jade Hammond on a hunt and kill mission for feral pigs

JADE Hammond is attractive, well spoken and has a good job. No wonder people are surprised when they discover she’s ‘Miss Bacon Buster 2013’.

JADE Hammond is attractive, well spoken and has a good job.

It’s no wonder that people who don’t know her well are shocked when they discover she’s capable of killing with a knife.

They are even more surprised that the 23-year-old can easily take down something several kilos heavier than herself, before flipping it over before slicing its throat.

Welcome to the world of pig hunting.

The pharmacy worker, from Walgett in rural NSW, is among a small but growing group of women who hunt down the feral animals with their dogs before finishing them off with a knife.

Jade Hammond is young, attractive and has a good job. She also likes to hunt and kill feral animals.

Jade will appear in SBS’s The Feed tonight as she is followed throughout the hunt and kill process.

Once the kill is made, Jade and other female hunters like her, take a photo of themselves with the dead animal and send it into the Babes & Boars section of Bacon Busters magazine.

The female hunters have an active online community where they compare photos of their kills and plan future hunts together.

And while this may sound grim or cruel to some, she insists there’s nothing cruel about killing an animal which destroys crops, damages land and had bred to the point where its numbers are out of control.

The pretty pharmacy worker said people who didn't know her were surprised by what she got up to in her spare time.

Jade and her husband Scott do admit they love the thrill of the hunt and the adrenalin rush but insist the kill is always done as quickly as possible, while hunting dogs are protected with special chest plates and vests.

“Some people in the past have told me it’s cruel and wrong, until they realise the damage these animals do” she told news.com.au

“They not only eat massive amounts of food but they destroy valuable crops.”

Jade has even had friends tell her how wrong it is, but insists they’ve changed their minds once they see for themselves the damage caused by feral pigs.

“And even if you don’t eat meat you might eat grain which these animals will destroy,” she said.

The animals are such a problem most farmers openly welcome the hunters onto their land.

Even so pig hunting is not for the faint-hearted.

Jade was named Miss Bacon Buster 2013 — a title that earned her the cover photo of the annual Babes and Boars calendar. Picture: Courtesy SBS/The Feed

Dogs will get the scent of a wild pig and run off in search of the animal while they are tracked by the owners who are running in hot pursuit.

The dogs are trained to hold the feral animal by the ear until the hunter arrives, flips the pig over and slices down their throat as fast as possible.

“When I first started doing this every muscle in my body ached,” she said.

“You’re running so fast and holding such a strong animal you need every muscle in your body to flip them over.”

Hunted: They may look small and sweet, but these feral pigs cause massive amounts of damage.

The dogs find and smell the pig, holding it until the hunter arrives with a knife to finish it off.

With an estimated 23 million wild boars across Australia, pig hunting has become both a popular sport and a form of conservation with a growing number of female hunters.

Jade was named “Miss Bacon Buster 2013” — a title that earned her the cover photo of the annual Babes & Boars calendar.

How many kills are made a year depends on several factors including weather and crop availability.

Last year the Hammonds reckon they killed about 360 of the beasts, the year before they got the same number in just one month.

And while they may sound like a tasty piece of bacon, they are anything but.

As wild animals and scavengers the pigs will eat almost anything and are often full of disease and tics, so are not widely eaten.

This picture shows just some of the damage feral pigs are capable of.

It is estimated there are up to 23 million feral pigs across Australia.

Jade, who comes from a strong “pigging” family and began hunting five years ago, goes whenever she can, even on her own but prefers the company of a hunting party.

Exact numbers of hunters are not known, but Jade said she has noticed more women becoming interested in pig hunting.

She and her husband even have friends come up to spend weekends especially to hunt the animals.

* The Feed is on SBS 2 from 7.30pm tonight | @TheFeedSBS2

Babes & Boars runner up Cassandra. Picture: Facebook

Here’s 2014 calendar entrant, Shantel. Picture: Facebook

Jade said friends often came up on the weekends to join them for a weekend of hunting