1.5 billion $ pig problem

[Blaino]

I'm not sure how I feel about this beacuse I sure don't want there to be a shortage of pigs! They are just too fun to hunt and dang good on the table.....

 http://www.foxnews.com/science/2014/10/27/america-15b-problem-ruinous-wild-pigs/?intcmp=features

[Eric Krewson]

Anything the feds get involved in will be like throwing money down a rat hole as well as being a failure in the long run. I don't think you have to worry about being pigless.

[DanielB89]

Blaino,

the only way to get rid of all the pigs in america would be to nuke it.  And i'd bet some of the pigs would become radioactive.  They are some tough jokers!

[ChuckC]

funny:

 "I've never seen any one species that can affect so many livelihoods and resources," says a Texas official."


Look in the mirror.

ChuckC

[choochoou]

My sentiments exactly chuck c

[ron w]

They are so worried about them in New York that they don't want hunters to shoot them........     And we all know how well they can manage game in the Empire State!!

[Birdbow]

How's this:
  In NH, you can't kill a hog in the wild without first CONTACTING THE HOG'S OWNER AND SECURING PERMISSION!?!?! They're considered 'private property'.

[centaur]

Yes, get the feds involved, that should solve the problem. Maybe they will put wolves in the states with the hogs. Sure is working out well in the west.

[Roadkill]

some of you may recall the Catalina Island goat "problem".  they helo shot them all.  We bowhunters used to be able to go out there and hunt them year round, but someone thought they were destroying the environment and gunned them. Those of us who hunted there loved the freedom of roaming the entire island with bow in hand.  
We all understand the dynamic nature of pig reproduction. We also would like to be part of the solution....CA used to make it easy to hunt them-cheap.  Now the $$$ rules, both in the price of the license and tag and then trespass fees.  If the problem is really a "problem" then why put obsstacles in front of the average guy helping resolve it?  I am not naieve enough to think bow hunting alone will control the pig issue in places that have serious overpopulation, but we could put a dent in some of it.

[Bowwild]

Pigs should be open season, year round with no license fee. Yep, I know a few poacher-types will use such open regs as cover to be going after game species.

Anyone caught moving live pigs should be prosecuted.

The only way to get rid of these animals would be to allow market hunting of them -- kill all you want and sell them for food.  If there was a financial incentive to go after them, pigs would go the way several game animals almost did more than a 100 years ago.

[Dave Lay]

Originally posted by Bowwild:
Pigs should be open season, year round with no license fee. Yep, I know a few poacher-types will use such open regs as cover to be going after game species.

Anyone caught moving live pigs should be prosecuted.

The only way to get rid of these animals would be to allow market hunting of them -- kill all you want and sell them for food.  If there was a financial incentive to go after them, pigs would go the way several game animals almost did more than a 100 years ago.

great point

[Bjorn]

Bowwild that is very well thought out.

[nineworlds9]

Here in FL its currently legal to hunt them year round on private land day or night, and you don't need a hunting permit.  However on public land hunting is restricted to 'day' only, and the open seasons on that particular WMA, the legal methods are narrowed also.  Recently I believe a few WMA's allow after dark but its highly restricted.  

I feel strongly that FL should open up the WMA's to year round hunting for them day or night, just like private land.  I guess they won't cause they'd have to have officers keeping track at all hours for safety reasons and to prevent deer poaching during the off season or whatever.  

I support swine genocide 100%.

Wanna hear something crazy though...this morning I was driving to work and on the radio during the news they made a blurb about how FWC in one region of FL was going to start working with some high end restaurants or some crap to bring "wild boar" to the table???  WTH???  I about spit out my coffee.  I need to fact check and see what the backstory on this is or if the newscaster didn't have their facts straight.  That's all we need is the government making some kinda management deal on them with some restaurants and then they're going to restrict private hunters even more cause its a money maker.

[DanielB89]

get this.. Where we hunt on a WMA there are a ton of hogs.  And i literally mean thousands.  They do have a hog season that you can hunt them in march, but here is the kicker.  You can't hunt them with anything but a rimfire.  I invested in a .22 mag and it does the trick within reason, but if you're truly concerned with the controlling of them, why aren't we allowed to shoot them with whatever we want?

[killinstuff]

Typical media crap. Divide what they tell you by 7 and you'll get closer to the truth.

[Jake Scott]

Interesting read with a lot of good points.  I don't live in a hog rich area, but I would give my eye teeth to have a big game animal to hunt year round.  I would LOVE that.

As to management...

Seems like eradication is order many areas.  That also seems like an easy problem to fix to me, but the government can rarely be relied on to make sense.

Great thread,

Jake

[gringol]

Originally posted by killinstuff:
Typical media crap. Divide what they tell you by 7 and you'll get closer to the truth.

That's the truth.  400# pig ain't a wild pig.  Probably raised in a pen and released.  We have a lot of pigs in FL, but they  aren't the scourge of mankind.  just another critter that needs to be chased with a bow.

[Roadkill]

22?  Really?  Who makes the rules?

[shreffler]

I wish we had wild hogs in masses in PA :/

Then again I'm not a farmer and they wouldn't affect my livelihood at all. I'd just love to have something to get after with a stick bow year round, that's for sure.

Not to mention homemade bacon jerky  :D

[fnshtr]

I recently spoke with a game biologist in Louisiana about hog hunting. He admitted that they are "5 to 10 years" behind with the regulations. He said that the State didn't realize how quickly they would become "problematic".

He assured me that the regulatory agency is working to make it easier (cheaper) to get NRs and Rs alike to hunt the "nuisance quadrupeds"... feral hogs.

I hope to take my first hog down there early next year.