Posted on 03/20/2021 10:59:10 PM PDT by nickcarraway
“I’m an outlaw,” Dimas “Pompi” Rodriguez told the Guardian of working as one of Florida’s feral hog poachers, a line of work which authorities and homeowners turn a blind eye to due to the animals’ massively destructive existence.
hough the topic became a laughing stock in 2019 after a viral tweet about assault weapons, the hogs have actually become America’s biggest wildlife challenge.
After pigs escaped from a Spanish explorer near Tampa in 1539, the animals grew into a 9 million strong population present in 39 states. The pests cause what the US Department of Agriculture estimates to be more than $2.5 billion in property damage annually, the Guardian reported.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
“I’ve been told by one friend who went on a feral hog hunt that there’s very little if any edible meat on them because it’s mostly/all sinew so the hogs are killed and left to rot.
I’ve also been told the feral hogs are very aggressive so I’m curious to know how farming and fattening these hogs for fresh pork is profitable?”
Unless you have a young sow most of the meat on feral hogs is not to our taste. Sometimes a small market for it in Europe but don’t think it is happening right now. You can capture them live and feed them out on corn etc. for 6 weeks or so and get acceptable meat, they will revert to a semi-domesticated state/attitude quickly. Chance of making money doing that depends on price of pork, feed and gov regulations. Right now I don’t think it pays. I see lots of used hog traps for sale and no big bunch’s of traps at farm stores for sale. Central and South Texas area.
Trichinosis
Open season on hogs in GA 12 months per year.
Prior the Hussien O. crash in '09, hog tapping was very profitable.
Slaughter houses were paying top money for feral hogs.
Their market for processed hogs was export to Europe.
That market crashed in Sept '08 and continued through Hussein's reign.
The closest buying slaughter house in my area is Frontier Meats in N Ft Worth.
There is meat market in Detroit (Texas y'all) that is well known for it's feral hog hams.
The hogs are still here, though, as are the buzzards, armadillos, gators, etc., etc.
They’re an invasive species, they cause a lot of property damage and they’re tasty. Shoot on site.
It’s pretty much always open season on hogs in FL
That's what I was thinking. I knew a few hog hunters back in FL. They're almost as crazy as gator hunters.
Feral hogs are a major problem in many places. Here in MO, they were paying bounties on them until they found out some of the hunters were letting Europeans boars out into the wild to boost the population and keep themselves in work. Now they pay a few specialized teams who mostly trap them and they work side by side with State and Federal people. My neighbor had a problem with them last year. The pasture looked like a mine field after all the mines had been tripped. Hundreds of big holes that even a big tractor might get stuck in.
I have friends here in rural central FL who are deeply into trapping and dressing/eating feral hogs, but I find it boaring
My father lives south of Kissimmee, Florida in a semi-rural area of large house lots with scattered patches of woods. In spite of fencing, hogs, racoons, armadillos, foxes, and coyotes frequently approach the house and barn. Two energetic German Shepherds help keep them at bay by patrolling at night.
Your friend must live in a place with little to eat, as I often BBQ young sows to 60-70pounds & they are GREAT as whole hog BBQ.
OTOH, I do NOT cook the big ones. = Shoot ‘em & leave them for the scavengers.
yours, tex
https://www.foxnews.com/story/alabama-boy-kills-1051-pound-monster-pig-bigger-than-hogzilla
SORRY to tell you but PSEUDO-RABIES (or as you spelled “psudo”) does NOT ever affect humans AND once cooked the pork can affect NO other mammal.
I don’t know a single person who consumes RAW or even “rare” pork.
(I sometimes have fed my cat “leftover” BBQ trimmings & “plate scrapings”.)
Yours, ex-cadet
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