Posted on 11/03/2006 8:06:40 AM PST by Conservababe
State hunters asked to take out feral hogs
Friday, November 3, 2006
The Associated Press
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- When it comes to killing off Missouri's wild hogs, conservation officials hope hunters will see the job not as a sport, but as a mission.
Voracious, wily and known to carry disease, feral hogs can be killed without a permit at any time of the year in Missouri. In fact, the Department of Conservation encourages hunters to pick them off during firearms seasons for deer and turkeys.
"I can't emphasize strongly enough we want these animals dead," said Bill Heatherly, wildlife protection supervisor for the agency. "We don't want people to hunt them; we want them to kill them."
In some states, feral hogs have been found to carry diseases that can be transmitted to humans and livestock. They're also suspected as the source of the recent E. coli outbreak in some spinach from California.
Feral hogs are domestic animals that go wild or are offspring of domestic hogs and Russian or European boars.
Killing a feral hog can be difficult. Boars and sows with piglets can be mean enough to force hunters to climb trees to escape them, officials said.
"They are a difficult animal to kill because they're real smart," Heatherly said.
If pigs know they're being hunted, they'll move out of an area and can even become nocturnal, he said.
Hogs wariness makes eradication efforts difficult because by the time a hunting team can come together, the animals usually have moved to another area, Heatherly said.
Feral hogs are threats because they are omnivorous.
"They'll compete with deer and turkey for acorns, and are known to eat deer fawns and turkey eggs," he said.
Martensen said herds of rooting hogs can also devastate sensitive environments, cause erosion and pollute water.
"It's just not a lot of good to have feral hogs in Missouri," he said.
if'n I see one, I'll shoot it fer yuh...
'kay!
Hog hunting can be dangerous. Need to shot from a distance. Need to have large handgun and knife as back up. They can kill a man and are knows to kill dogs that are used to hunt them. They are not nice and cute. Smart and mean and they can move faster than you think. Nasty critters. If you have children or animals around you need to get rid of the hogs.
That's why the west Texans refer to them as Great Plains Grizzly.
I haven't seen one since I was a child in Louisiana. We lived on a small acreage about five miles from town. One afternoon my mom and I went for a walk through the pine woods in the back.
Suddenly we heard movement and grunting nearby. I got a glimpse of a very scary animal and if I am not mistaken, it had curled tusks. My mother screamed at me to "run for the house". I did and she did. Thank goodness they didn't chase us and we made it safely.
My mother made a phone call and soon about five neighbors on horseback were in the back yard. They rode off and killed the whole lot of wild boars. I heard my father tell my mother that it was too hot to slaughter them, so they just left them for the vultures.
Nice description! I hadn't heard that one before. Are these the same as a javelina?
Oh, no Javalina are not true hogs, we are talking about domestic hogs that were allowed to get free and breed with old Spanish hogs, and Russian boar that was also turned loose by the Spanish for food. Javalina are native to the American southwest, but are a Collared Peccary, not a true hog.
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