Posted on 08/31/2024 1:46:17 PM PDT by Libloather
What has four legs, hails from Spain, is notoriously difficult to kill, multiplies by 10 each year, and causes an annual $2.5 billion damage to the economy?
If you guessed feral hogs, you are correct. An estimated nine million nomadic pigs currently roam America, destroying crops and properties which lay in their path, according to the US Department of Agriculture.
Hogs even cause the occasional fatality - either through a rare bloodthirsty attack on a human or by charging across a highway and triggering a road traffic accident.
In the most pig-dense states like Texas, law enforcement officials offer bounties of around $15 per hog ear to citizens who successfully shoot one down.
And the species is reproducing at an alarming rate, with the average hog birthing two litters of around five piglets per year. It is little wonder then that groups of self-styled 'hog hunters' are cropping up across the country, armed with 'hogcopters', bows-and-arrows and guns to wipe out thousands of the feral beasts each year.
'They're wildly out of control. They're uncontrollable,' said Andy Butler, who has shot thousands of hogs and runs a Texas-based company equipping law enforcement officials with the knowledge needed to safely shoot the beasts.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
You all know me.
You know I can take care of this problem for you.
These aren’t your little piggies goin wee wee wee all the way home.
These are hogs.
Spanish Great White Hogs.
These are the kind of hogs that build a house and wait for the big bad wolf to come and blow it down so they can kick his ass.
Now, I’ll need some supplies.
I need some bungee cords, some duct tape and some chewing gum.
That should get my truck working again.
Then, I’ll need three boxes of Fruit Loops and a case of beer.
That’s for bait.
Me, I eat Cocoa Puffs for breakfast.
And I need an animal to go into the bushes and flush them out.
Something like a cross between a grizzly bear and a mountain lion.
Yeah…..a Toy Poodle.
A white one.
One with one of those fancy haircuts to confuse the hogs and stay cool in this heat.
Finally, I’ll need some fingernail clippers.
Not for hog hunting.
I lost ours and my wife told me I can’t come home without a new one.
If you’re starving, it will taste great.
I have a friend in Houston. He invited me on a feral hog hunt. They fly in a helicopter and shoot them like apples in a barrel. I declined the opportunity. Maybe if I accepted I would be a more masculine man.
Lamb V. Mutton. Yummmm and Yuck....
Hence the increased populations. You'd think they'd learn about perverse incentives from Georgia. From Wikipedia:
Experiencing an issue with feral pigs, the U.S. Army post of Fort Benning in Georgia offered hunters a $40-bounty for every pig tail turned in. Over the course of the 2007–2008 program, the feral pig population in the area increased. While there were some reports that individuals purchased pigs' tails from meat processors then resold the tails to the Army at the higher bounty price, a detailed study of the bounty scheme found different effects from perverse incentives were mainly responsible. Both the pigs' fertility rate and offspring survival rates increased under the scheme. This was due to improved nutrition made available by the feed bait used to attract the animals to hunting sites. Secondly, hunters were found to be more likely to preferentially target large males as "trophy"-quality game, while ignoring females and juveniles as targets. Removal of mature males from the population has a negligible impact on population growth, as remaining mature males can each stud many breeding sows.
A Perverse Incentive is an incentive that has an unintended and undesirable result that is contrary to the intentions of its designers. The cobra effect is the most direct kind of perverse incentive, typically because the incentive unintentionally rewards people for making the issue worse. The term is used to illustrate how incorrect stimulation in economics and politics can cause unintended consequences.
The term Cobra Effect was coined by economist Horst Siebert based on an anecdotal occurrence in India during British rule. The British government, concerned about the number of venomous cobras in Delhi, offered a bounty for every dead cobra. Initially, this was a successful strategy; large numbers of snakes were killed for the reward. Eventually, however, people began to breed cobras for the income. When the government became aware of this, the reward program was scrapped. When cobra breeders set their snakes free, the wild cobra population further increased. This story is often cited as an example of Goodhart's law or Campbell's law.
Are they edible? I’ve read they are riddled with parasites.
Pulled pork, ribs and chili Verde for me.
My nephew (a former Marine), hunts them with his buddy and dogs. The dogs chase them down and hold them by the ears, and my either nephew or his buddy run up to them, jump on their backs, and stab them. Crazy, huh?
Well I love Pork, but I’m wondering why Pork is to high $$ I can’t afford it. What’s wrong with this problem?
They can easily breed 2 litters per year of 8 - 12 piggies. Now do the math!!
It is an epidemic.
This company is killing many at a time and having a great time doing it. For those of you with plenty of time on your hands check out https://www.helibacon.com/
Looks like a lot of fun but I do prefer to eat what I kill.
Bacon on wheels.
No doubt about that. I’m sure LOTS of people around the world would be thankful for that meat.
I worked in China for 2/3 of a year in the mid 70s. The meat they served us was horrible — very gamey.
Hahahahaha
Yes, when the [zombie or whatever] apocalypse comes, people are going to be glad the countryside is already overrun with feral hogs for the taking!
>Looks like a lot of fun but I do prefer to eat what I kill.<
OK. Some people like food and that is food for some people.
It doesn’t go to waste.
I think it would be a grand idea to have an agreement with Mexico to ship huge numbers of hogs to stockyards just South of the Border. Then after an inspection by Mexican health inspectors, they could directly move to an abattoir (slaughterhouse), to provide lots of cheap pork to Mexico.
It’s a big win-win for both countries.
There are only one or two, small scale wild boar pork product producers in the US, both in Texas, and while interesting as a novelty, they cannot be of large enough scale, here, to economically compare to our existing pork infrastructure.
But Mexico is a different story.
I once met a US Park Ranger who was a vegan. I asked her about feral pigs. She got angry and said that they all need to be killed.
Believe me, I love to eat wild pork and always have plenty in the freezer. But I have not ever felt comfortable killing an animal that I did not harvest for consumption unless it was a direct threat.
I never saw one in CT and I live in a rural area. I watched a video of a guy who used dogs to catch the pigs alive. He then hog tied them and brings them somewhere to field dress them and cut them up. I think they sell the meat but they might donate it. One of his smaller dogs got mauled by a hog and the dog died from its injuries. The owner doesn’t put vests and collars on the dogs to protect them.
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