Feral pigs

[OldHeidelberg]

Just saw this article in SI. Don't get me wrong, I love pork and eat plenty of it, but on the mammal intelligence scale I always thought pigs were a lot closer to dogs than cattle or deer. Shooting them with assault rifles from helicopters and leaving their corpses to rot is fun? That's just weird, I was raised to eat what I hunt. What a mess, I guess if it was solving the problem it would be different but it sounds like it just makes it worse. One of those southern culture things I just don't get I guess. I know there were some pigs on a game farm around Soldiers Grove that escaped and became a problem a few years back, I wonder if this is going to become a problem in Wisconsin as well.

 

https://www.si.com/sports-illustrated/2020/01/30/feral-pigs-problem-texas-helicopters?utm_source=pocket-newtab

[Zad Fnark]

They are a serious problem down south. I think they have to bag something like 75% of them just to keep the population in check.

 

I'd love to take one myself someday. I heard they're pretty good eating. My .450 Bushmaster would probably do the job. I would never use a .223 on them.

[MrTPlush]

They are terrible for the crops etc...while it sounds wasteful to kill them and leave them if you read the article it does explain why. A) They are not eligible to be donated and B) Critters/birds get to them fast where they go bad. Oddly it is a decent way to kill a bunch of them efficiently. It sounds bad, but they are incredibly destructive. Also oddly enough it is good for the economy that people can make a business out of it and help landowners/farmers at the same time.

 

Many people do indeed shoot them and recover them to eat. That is most common. The problem is there are so many it gets to the point you don’t want the meat and as stated you can’t donate the meat.. They love when out of staters come to shoot them because not only are they obviously helping kill some, but they also want the meat. The whole helicopter thing is not very common...makes a good article though.

[Storm]

I live about 20 minutes south of Soldiers Grove. I remember that feral pig incident.

Not much after that hit the news, someone hit and killed a large feral pig. If I remember correctly it was like 300 pounds. They went down the road a ways to call the Sheriff. By the time the Sheriff arrived someone had gutted the pig and took it.

[GAME05]

I used to live 45 minutes north of Corpus Christi. Wild hogs are absolutely everywhere and they will tear up huge patches of ground in no time at all--you probably couldn't mow your yard faster than a group of them could rip it up.

 

There is no hunting season for hogs--it's year-round and there is no bag limit. A big reason for that is they breed the same as mice do--three litters per year up to 9 per litter. So just like mice, you can kill every single one that you see but you'll never be rid of them. So yeah, if you just want to shoot some and let them there to rot (assuming it's your land), you can go right ahead.

 

The meat is somewhat gamey, so not everyone likes it, but I sure did. No huge amount of trouble to butcher, either.

 

The population in that area must be something pretty horrible if they're going to the trouble of shooting them out of helicopters. But overall they're an absolute plague to the land. No it's not particularly sporting to just shoot them, but sport isn't the point of it in the first place. Same thing is being done to nutria in Louisiana and same is sometimes done with coyotes. They're pest animals.

[OldHeidelberg]

They are terrible for the crops etc...while it sounds wasteful to kill them and leave them if you read the article it does explain why. A) They are not eligible to be donated and B) Critters/birds get to them fast where they go bad. Oddly it is a decent way to kill a bunch of them efficiently. It sounds bad, but they are incredibly destructive. Also oddly enough it is good for the economy that people can make a business out of it and help landowners/farmers at the same time.

 

Many people do indeed shoot them and recover them to eat. That is most common. The problem is there are so many it gets to the point you don’t want the meat and as stated you can’t donate the meat.. They love when out of staters come to shoot them because not only are they obviously helping kill some, but they also want the meat. The whole helicopter thing is not very common...makes a good article though.

 

If just shooting them from helicopters was a solution to the problem I would think the state would be better served by just hiring professionals to do it, those guys are part of the economy too and it couldn't be much of a dent in the budget of a state the size of Texas. By trying to do it by creating these businesses seems less efficient and probably won't get it done. The have tried programs with bounties for coyotes I think in the south too and it just results in more pups surviving to adulthood.

[MrTPlush]

They are terrible for the crops etc...while it sounds wasteful to kill them and leave them if you read the article it does explain why. A) They are not eligible to be donated and B) Critters/birds get to them fast where they go bad. Oddly it is a decent way to kill a bunch of them efficiently. It sounds bad, but they are incredibly destructive. Also oddly enough it is good for the economy that people can make a business out of it and help landowners/farmers at the same time.

 

Many people do indeed shoot them and recover them to eat. That is most common. The problem is there are so many it gets to the point you don’t want the meat and as stated you can’t donate the meat.. They love when out of staters come to shoot them because not only are they obviously helping kill some, but they also want the meat. The whole helicopter thing is not very common...makes a good article though.

 

If just shooting them from helicopters was a solution to the problem I would think the state would be better served by just hiring professionals to do it, those guys are part of the economy too and it couldn't be much of a dent in the budget of a state the size of Texas. By trying to do it by creating these businesses seems less efficient and probably won't get it done. The have tried programs with bounties for coyotes I think in the south too and it just results in more pups surviving to adulthood.

 

I didn’t say it was a solution, there really isn’t a solution at this point. But if there can be a positive impact to the economy from it I guess that is better than nothing.

[GAME05]

Smokey Mountains National Park actually does hire guys to go out and shoot pigs at night. I met one once and he said that the black bears and sometimes other animals liked to walk right behind him. The bears, especially, were smart enough to learn just what he was doing, and they'd run right past him once he shot one.

[homer]

Smokey Mountains National Park actually does hire guys to go out and shoot pigs at night. I met one once and he said that the black bears and sometimes other animals liked to walk right behind him. The bears, especially, were smart enough to learn just what he was doing, and they'd run right past him once he shot one.

 

That's hilarious.

[Bikeage77]

Smokey Mountains National Park actually does hire guys to go out and shoot pigs at night. I met one once and he said that the black bears and sometimes other animals liked to walk right behind him. The bears, especially, were smart enough to learn just what he was doing, and they'd run right past him once he shot one.

 

That's hilarious.

 

And somewhat terrifying!