Residents and motorists along Mt. Olive Road near the Warrior River bridge are going to have to put up with the smell of dead hogs for a while.

At least three hogs have been dumped by the side of the road, just north of the Buckshort Bridge. They have been there for several days, according to Wayne Sullivan, director of Jefferson County Roads and Transportation.

“It’s not the first time this has happened,” Sullivan said. “Somebody kills some feral hogs, and then they just dump them, thinking we’ll take care of it. But we can’t because we don’t have the money.”

Because of that, the carcasses will stay right where they are, until they decay or some predator finishes off what’s left.

Feral hogs have been a problem in several parts of northern Jefferson County in the past couple of years. Residents are allowed to shoot them at will, as long as they don’t endanger anyone else. But what they do with the carcasses is another issue altogether, and dumping them along a public road is just an extreme form of littering.

“This has been a problem for a little while,” Sullivan said.