L’ANSE – The Michigan Department of Natural Resources can’t prosecute or harass the owners of pigs purchased from Baraga’s Roger and Brenda Turunen, 12th Circuit Court Judge Charles Goodman ruled last week, at least not until a final determination on whether the pigs are legal.

The Turunens, along with several other breeders and owners of a cross-bred type of pig known as Russian Boar, have been fighting court battles since 2011 against the DNR, which has declared the pigs an illegal invasive species and attempted to prosecute owners.

A Court of Appeals constitutional challenge by the Turunens and others to the DNR’s rule that defines and outlaws the pigs based on appearance failed, sending the Turunen’s case back to Circuit Court, where the Turunen’s will attempt to prove their pigs’ legality on other grounds.

Until then, their pigs and their pig-raising business are protected under an August 2013 preliminary injunction. The DNR violated that injunction, said the Turunens’ attorney Joseph O’Leary, when they began sending game farms that bought pigs from the Turunen’s threatening letters.

“Reba DeBacker, in Marquette County, owns Superior Game Ranch,” said O’Leary. “It was run several years by her husband. Jeff got sick and died, and they’d never made a move against him. Then she gets a letter, get rid of the pigs by Feb. 12 or we’ll be there Feb. 13th and they better be gone.”

Interfering with pigs purchased from the Turunens, O’Leary argued in his filing, constituted interfering with their business.

“In our opinion, it was an effort to destroy the Turunens,” he said.

Whether or not the Turunen’s were the actual targets of enforcement against others, Goodman ruled the customers are protected under the order.

Ed Golder, a public information officer with the DNR, confirmed the ruling, and said the DNR has halted enforcement against all people with former Turunen pigs. The agency is looking into how the ruling could affect enforcement efforts in non-Turunen-related cases,” he added.

“Looking at this, it could have broad implications,” he said.