California's 20-pound invasive nutria problem could be worse than previously imagined

www.sfgate.com ^ | Updated 4:00 am PDT, Friday, August 17, 2018 | By Eric Ting

[Jeff Chandler]

Store-bought, hunted or in a restaurant?

You left out "road kill".

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Red Badger. I didn't look, but there must be plenty of jokes in this thread. :^)

[marktwain]

It could be based on truth.

I am working on a story about a friend of mine (he is 100). In the 1950s he and his partner went to Canada and shot wolves from the air for bounty.

In addition to the $25 bounty, they sold the complete wolf to the Indians in the area for another $25. That made $50 a wolf, when the minimum wage was 75 cents. So each wolf was the equivalent of 1.6 weeks of work for minimum wage. They brought in 51 wolves in three weeks. The story made national news.

It is well documented. I even have pictures.

[Kickass Conservative]

Supposedly some Guys my Niece knows went out and shot 30 Feral Hogs in one Night.

At least that’s the third hand story my Wife told me. LOL

I’m not sure if they can keep the Carcasses, but that kind of money would buy a whole lot of Bacon.

[_longranger81]

What we need here is a gobblement PRO-gram...getcha hole bunch a rat instructors to go into the Nutria school systems, and teach all them little rat-faced critters the joys, the thrills, the downright high-livin-est extasies of the homo-rat-sexualist lifestyle, and their inalienable right to wallow in the trough of same-sex indulgence. Make sure they all know how ridiculously passé opposite sex relations are, and how only hateful, stupid rats procreate. And teach them about abortions, just in case they put tab A into slot B by mistake. Problem solved, all by the magic of the Gobblement that knows everything, so you don’t have to.

[Ace's Dad]

Bounty?

My Dad used to shoot sparrow in rural Michigan for a Nickle bounty. This would be in the late 1920s, I think. He told me that a single .22 round would cost a Penny, so he had to learn to shoot accurately to make a profit!

[bboise]

When I was growing up there was a nutria farm near us , the fur was supposedly comparable to minx.

[Jagermonster]

About the bounties - I expect a bounty works for slow-breeding critters that are a lot of trouble to raise, but for fast-breeding critters, a bounty might make the problem worse.

The British tried this in India with cobras. 🐍🐍 Then the locals started to breed the cobras to collect the bounty. When the British got wise, they shut down the bounty program. The cobra breeders had no further use for the cobras, so they released them. The wild cobra population then increased because of the breeding program. This made the problem worse than it was before the bounty. 🐍 🐍 🐍 🐍

This situation is the textbook case of the "Cobra Effect," Which is used to show unintended consequences of incorrect economic stimulus.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobra_effect

🐍 🐍

[MeganC]

Tell the Mexicans that nutria are valuable and that it’s illegal to steal them.

That’ll solve the problem.

[Kickass Conservative]

The only answer to that kind of fraud is a Temporary Bounty only paying for full grown Animals.

[kaboom]

the fur was supposedly comparable to minx.

There's a joke in there but I wouldn't be allowed to tell it. The word you wanted was "minks".

[scrabblehack]

The pope (1600’s, I think) said you could eat them during Lent.

[leaning conservative]

Armadillos are so cute up close. I love their tiny ears. My husband & I watched one roaming the yard one evening.

[Kommodor]

Just stay away from the plum duff

[marktwain]

Of course, there are always secondary effects.

Nutria might be a problem, as they are fast breeders.

One possible aid is to limit the bounty to full carcasses in specified locations, leading to transportation difficulties for cheaters.

[scrabblehack]

Don’t count on it...I can see spellchecker suggesting either “lynx” or “manx” as well.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Only if you eat uncooked armadillo meat.

[ronniesgal]

can’t they let the Chinese restaurant owners “pick their own”, like strawberries? they’d be put to good use! and maybe a fur coat with every $50.00 purchase.

[Gay State Conservative]

How do they tell them apart from the typical Kalifonicate voter?

[Pajamajan]

So were not talking about the dominant political party running California?