Posted on 02/22/2017 7:57:59 PM PST by Mariner
Texas has a new plan for its 2.5 million feral hogs: total annihilation.
Sid Miller, the state's agriculture commissioner, just approved a pesticide called "Kaput Feral Hog Lure" for statewide use.
"The 'hog apocalypse' may finally be on the horizon," Miller said in a statement on Tuesday.
SEE ALSO: First human-pig chimeras created, sparking hopes for transplantable organs and debate
"This solution is long overdue," he added. "Wild hogs have caused extensive damage to Texas lands and loss of income for many, many years."
Texas's agriculture commission estimates that feral hogs cause $52 million in damage each year to agricultural businesses by tearing up crops and pastures, knocking down fences and ruining equipment.
The so-called hog lure is derived from warfarin, a blood-thinning agent that's also used to kill rats and mice in homes and buildings. Animals don't die immediately from eating the odorless, tasteless chemical. That would be too kind. Instead, they keep eating it until the anti-clotting properties cause them to bleed to death internally.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
Pests are treated differently from game. We are talking pests here.
In the South, most small farms always raised a few pigs. Every fall they would slaughter a few and make sausage and cured hams for family and friends, then sell a few pigs at the pork auction houses for some Christmas money.
Then, about 25 years ago, all the local hog market auctions were closed down, excuse was bangs disease. But the big money producers seemed to have no problem with that and took over the market.
Don’t know what happened in Tx, but in the South many farmers just quit feeding and caring for the pigs and either killed them all, or cut their fences. Once they became worthless, farmers lost interest. Now pigs are covering the area where they were unknown in the wild 25 years ago.
Law of unintended consequences?
As far as gamey taste, limit your hog selection to 75 pounds or less, be careful of the glands on the back legs, and harvest when acorns are dropping. It is absolutely meat candy!
I’ve heard there is a bacon shortage too. Hopefully, the tiny-brained BLM idiots don’t misunderstand the call to “kill the pigs”.
Deer and turkey eat much of the same things hogs eat.
For some reason this reminds me of Gov. Perry’s first foray into what is good for us by mandate when he declared all girls in the public school system over 12 would be given Merck’s Gardasil for HPV. I can’t believe he survived that.
Something tells me to “follow the money” on this one too.
“Deer and turkey eat much of the same things hogs eat.”
Deer and Turkey don’y eat decaying carcasses and cow and horse feces. The back roads of south Texas are a buffet of roadkill just waiting for the hog’s to clean up.
Time to snare a bunch of hogs and airlift by helicopter to your local corner mosque!!!
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Wild hogs often have good blood lines.
Trap them, put them in pens and feed them mudslimes for a few months then slaughter them for fine eating.
There, fixed it for you.
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Might remove the gamey-ness, but you’ll never get the taste of turbans outta your mouth.
Maybe taste like camel /s
Not quite sure, some replies seem to know pretty well. Had to be fairly heavy to drop them that fast, I did see some shotshells flying at some point too!
Yep, sounds like a typical govt ‘solution’ to a problem (that can be taken care of if they got out of the way, I’d bet).
Poison? Follow the $$ here folks.
Not too keen on the bounty. At best, the farmer should be paying the hunter to rid him of his ills. Taxpayers will pay for higher food costs at worst, they don’t need to be 2x subsidizing the farmer (PLUS the ‘fees’ they charge to hunt on their land...talk about a 2x-3x ‘win’).
Free Market will solve the problem, but, as we’ve seen far too often, govt won’t/can’t get out of its own way.
Deer and turkey eat much of the same things hogs eat.
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The difference is in the population and population growth.
snip
Despite taking millions of casualties - an estimated 750,000-plus feral hogs have been killed
each of the past few years in Texas - the non-native pigs have continued their economically and
environmentally destructive march across the state, with an estimated 2.6 million of them spread
across at least 240 of Texas’ 254 counties.
http://www.chron.com/sports/outdoors/article/Texas-losing-war-on-feral-hogs-4685490.php
end snip
The helicopter hunters have a ground team that collects the hogs.
I agree. It’s a bad idea.
I have heard that you can soak the meat in vinegar to lose the gamey taste but have never tried it.
I think what they eat has a lot to do with it. I killed a mule deer when I lived in Western Kansas and the meat tasted just like beef. That deer had been eating what the farmers grew in the area and it was essentially the same thing they feed cattle in the pens.
Shoot them and use the meat to supply the prison system. Who cares what it tastes like, it’s protein. And if you’re a muzzie, tough.
You need landowner permission, but I believe that it’s free.
Our general rule is that if it is over 150 pounds it might as well be sausaged. A few herbs can take care of the taste.
The really big boars sometimes are just not worth trying to tote back, dress, and eat. Better to get two smaller ones IMHO.
I could see there was a spread on contact with the animal, but it isn't a traditional looking shotgun. Puzzle solved.
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