Since the first days of New Amsterdam, hogs were a persistent problem. Following the tradition of the Fatherland, the Dutch settlers did not bother to pen their animals, and they regularly ran loose, rooting up streets, orchards and gardens.
In the early days before the city was chartered, the hogs found favored rooting ground on the grassy earthen walls of the Dutch fort. Recognizing the potential damage to the young city’s defensive standing should the hogs be allowed to continue, in 1652 Director General Peter Stuyvesant ordered a fence be built around the earthen walls to keep the hogs out. A year later, in March, 1653, he noted in a letter to the newly-formed city government that the fence had not yet been completed, and the portions that were built had been knocked down by the hogs. He urged them once again to protect the fort from these persistent attackers.
The Burgomasters and Schepens, to whom Stuyvesant’s letter was aimed, agreed to expedite the construction of the fence, hiring a herdsman to keep the hogs away from the walls in the meantime and using posts donated by Stuyvesant himself.
If the fence was ever built, it proved ineffective. Five months later, in August 1653, the fort was still under attack. A frustrated Stuyvesant again addressed the Burgomasters and Schepens and washed his hands of the whole affair, claiming he would take no responsibility for the further destruction of the fort by the rooting pigs. Stuyvesant even made an attempt to flatter the urbanity of the new magistrates, suggesting that letting the livestock run free is something that is simply not done in the best cities.
The Burgomasters and Schepens were sufficiently impressed by Stuyvesant’s plea to order that all hogs be kept penned until such time as the fort and earthworks could be completely fenced. They did not go so far as to order that hogs be kept penned after that, probably sensing that such an ordinance would not have the support of the populace. The courts of New Amsterdam and New York would repeatedly hear damage cases caused by poor fences and loose hogs for many years afterward.