Honest opinions wanted

[RAU]

These are a destructive, invasive, species. I dont think this is even a sporting or hunting issue. They should be controlled. They dont belong. They are now being seen and ocasionally shot in Pennsylvania. The Pa game commision seems genuinely concerned about their move here. Id utilize all i could as food but at the same time would never badmouth someone for leaving one lay in the name of control. I think the last sentence in the post above by Friend hits the nail absolutely square on the head.

[PAPA BEAR]

i was raised with the understanding that if you end somethings life you use it.this excluded varmits.although wild hogs are good eating i'm sure, they breed so fast you'd never kill them all if you only took what you needed for eating.therefore i feel letting them lay is putting them in the varmit category and is necessary to preserve other wildlife.there have been numerous lakes killed off to rid them of one invasive species.this is just to put things back to where they are supposed to be.sometimes you just have to swallow your own morals for the greater good of all.

[stickbowmaniac]

Leave those good eating porkchops where they lay.NO WAY.I would be headed to the store to buy some onions,garlic and bell pepper to go with them.LOL
We love to eat down here in cajun land.

[Curveman]

Originally posted by NC BowBender:
How about donating the meat to soup kitchens and homeless shelters if you have enough for your needs?

That way the hungry are fed and the herds are thinned down at the same time.

Yes! When I've only hunted hogs I was told the locals would eat what I didn't want. I do see the point here though of the hogs being considered as a varmint so I'm not quite sitting in judgment in this case.

[Charlie Lamb]

coyotes have to eat too!

[Sacred mt]

if i cant eat it i dont shoot it except for targets as they aint live simple as that.

Jeff B..You the MAN.

[metsastaja]

When I start to see this
 

 

and not this
 

I know I have a problem.

I have no problem going in with a 12 guage and reducing the population. I don't consider it hunting but game management. Hogs taken this way end up in the bone dump to feed the bears, vultures, panther, bob cats and yotes.

[J-dog]

I was going to say the same thing about soup kitchens? that might be a way for the meat to be used.
I have no problem shootin em and lettin em lay if I could not find some way for the meat. Like is said carp are not eaten (some do! yuk) BUT if a soup kitchen agreed to take care of em I would rather do that route.

I thnk they would be very hard on quail and turkey populations as they are nest raiders. Deer?????? not sure about that one although they are competition.

J

[J-dog]

I will add we do not have em here as of yet. While I think it would be awesome to have some more yr round local big game animal - farmers and the such might disagree.
Populations have to be controlled and on a critter that breeds as they do you have to face the fact that buzzards and the like have to eat too.

"Buzzards gotta eat same as worms" couldn't help myself.

J

[Hookeye]

Soup kitchens and other such organizations may have health code requirements that could exclude accepting wild swine.

Don't know what special precautions etc such meat has, am just tossing this out there.

It may not be as simple as donating venison from a licensed processor.

90 degree day, nuisance animal control........coyotes are going to eat well.

I'd like to take a big boar with a bow, but I wouldn't have a problem hosing as many as I could with a rifle.

Yup, raised pigs as a kid on grandparents farm. Cattle too. I like cattle, hate pigs.

Kill 'em all, let Mohammed sort them out (non PC but I thought that kind of funny.....admins, delete if you want :-)

[RUTANDSTRUT]

i dont believe in killing an animal for any reason and leaving it to lay.  there are too many people who would take the animal to eat.  in NJ, my properties require me (by owner)to shoot a certain amount of deer for management purposes which results in too many for me to eat.  i make arrangements before i hunt to give the deer away or give to the needy.

Speaking for myself alone, I wouldn't have a problem killing a destructive animal, but I wouldn't waste it if edible. Plenty of hungry people around and the critters will be more than happy with the gutpile.

[ChuckC]

I think a lot depends on the situation and also what the landowner wants.  Hogs are seeming to become a very win/lose situation.  They are spreading very fast and far & wide, at least according to DNR acounts and the news.  They are great fun to hunt, but do a huge amount of damage.  Damage which is likely wau more than we can easily see.  They root up everything that they can,  they eat everything in front of them.  We have no idea what their interaction is with small animals such as fawns, nests, etc.

If everything is OK, landowners agree, etc etc..  I am thnking that they are no different than a carp.  I could shoot and leave if that is the only way.

I wonder though. .  is there a way to convert them to meat for someone ?  Hogs have some issues that deer do not and may not be easily allowed (by law) for "meat for the hungry".
ChuckC

[RPolk]

Left unchecked hogs, like most any other animal, can't start to cause damage. I don't have a problem with a land owner killing off hogs to manage his property.

I have family in south Mississippi and they have started having problems with hogs getting in their fields, they do more "property damage" than "crop" damage. They shoot everyone they see, process what they need for family, give away what they can, and leave the rest to lay.

Tried letting other people hunt their property to help kill off more, but like most privileges they were soon abused so they stopped letting other hunt.

Hogs have been here in the North Georgia Mountains for years, there are pockets of areas where they are starting to damage land. You can shoot them year round on private land, and on Government land anytime there is a season open. I'd like to see that changes to year round on Government land also.

[Chris Shelton]

You southern boys might not want to kill off all the hogs.  It might be the only "industry" you guys have left after this whole oil mess!?!?!?  I personally leave groundhogs lie most of the time.  I see no difference in leaving hogs lie.  Well the only difference is that hogs taste better . . . so I've heard.  I know that the big groundhogs do not taste good, so I always let them lie, but occasionally I will take off the hide to make leather.  Just use what you can.

[J-dog]

For the folks that say, if I kill it I have to eat it - Do ya eat mice you kill out the mousetrap? not to be nitpickin but alot say if I take a life of an animal I was taught to eat it, to anything else is wrong. Does the size of the animal matter with that taught moral? one life more valuable than another. Agan not being critical but think about it.

I did not think about the health code! LOL I enforce the fire code - guess I shouldn't discriminate! They very well might not accept wild swine at a soup kitchen.

[larry]

If I lived where there was an over abundance of hogs, and my freezer had all I wanted, and if nobody else I knew wanted them, I'd have no problem shooting them and leaving them lay as long as it was legal.

[bolong]

I don't have a problem with leaving em laying. They are a major problem in my part of Arkansas.

[ArrowCrester]

HOGS are some of the best eating meat…would never just leave them on the ground. even if you dont eat them they can be donated to food banks, etc.

never waste wildlife… in many states its a crime.
 
                           

[Hookeye]

That's why they are not classified in some areas as "game animals".

Not a crime then to just leave them for on the spot fertilizer.

Just because something isn't utilized by higher ups in the chain, that doesn't mean there is waste.

Nothing in nature is wasted.