Posted on 10/20/2015 1:25:23 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Wild pigs are a nuisance in Texas. There are more than 1.5 million that roam the state and do a lot of damage to crops. One company has come up with one way to try to eliminate some hogs: shooting them from helicopters.
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
There are more than a million-and-a-half wild hogs roaming around Texas, and some are up to no good. Every year, these hogs damage about $400 million worth of crops. They're such a nuisance that the state allows hunters to kill wild hogs year-round without limits. Reporter Brenda Salinas has this story about one company that is capitalizing on the problem by letting tourists shoot pigs from helicopters.
BRENDA SALINAS, BYLINE: Here in this part of east Texas near College Station, wild pigs like to do one thing - root around in rice fields. Farmer Scott Savage says they can destroy four acres of his crops every night. That's why he keeps a military-style rifle in his combine.
SCOTT SAVAGE: If I see them out in the field, I'll stop and shoot them.
SALINAS: But no matter how many he shoots and kills, it's never enough, so he's offered up his land to a company called Helibacon. Helibacon flies hunting enthusiasts several times a week over this field and a few others. The helicopter skims a few dozen feet off the ground as hunters Howard Melnick and John Mofit lean out. They're ear, nose and throat doctors visiting from Pennsylvania.
JOHN DUMONT: Good hit, good hit - yeah, that's going to kill him. What do you guys think of that?
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: That was freaking so exciting.
SALINAS: After a training course, pilot John Dumont gives Melnick and Mofit two high-powered rifles and helps them strap into his doorless helicopter. That way, they can slide out and shoot as soon as they get the all clear. Dumont uses the sound and the chopper's downdraft to herd the pigs right into the open.
DUMONT: Yeah, clear to fire. Try to get the big one in the front first. Yeah, he's hit now. Yeah, we lost that little piglet, but that's OK.
SALINAS: The company goes to sportsman shows all over the country to convince tourists to book hunting trips. Wild hogs are edible, but a Texas A&M study found many carry infectious diseases. That's why Helibacon leaves the carcasses to the buzzards. In 48 hours, they'll be gone. Melnick and Mofit paid 3,000 dollars for this experience. Back on the ground, I ask them, was it worth it?
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: Oh, it was a hoot. It was crazy. It was neat.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Absolutely worth every second of it - I mean, totally exciting, you know, totally exciting - loved it, loved it. I wanted more.
SALINAS: Many Helibacon clients are military veterans who miss the adrenaline of shooting moving targets, but many are just people who like riding in helicopters and firing guns.
Some animal rights activists say shooting pigs out of a helicopter isn't right. Skip Trimble with the Texas Human Legislation Network says it's ineffective and inhumane.
SKIP TRIMBLE: They generally don't kill them with the first shot. They're injured. And they hit other parts of their body, and then they suffer for a long time. And it's not really a way of really eradicating these things.
SALINAS: Finger on the trigger, even a seasoned hunter like Howard Melnick had second thoughts.
HOWARD MELNICK: I could not shoot the piglet. (Laughter). I just couldn't do it. And I'm looking at him like - that's just not sporting. I'm not doing it (laughter).
SALINAS: In the two hours Melnick and Mofit were in the air, they shot about a dozen wild pigs. That's pretty standard for a helicopter hunt. With more than a million-and-a-half wild pigs in Texas, shooting them from the sky won't eradicate them, but it's boosting tourism and awareness of the problem. Helibacon is booked up until February. For NPR News, I'm Brenda Salinas in College Station, Texas.
The FBI agent in Die Hard, “hooo, just like f-—ing Vietnam!”
“Farmer Scott Savage says they can destroy four acres of his crops every night”
sounds like democrats ..or BLM demonstrators!
Im thinking that Texas might be THE BIG MARKET for attack drones.
‘Texas Human Legislation Network’ concerned about feral pigs. Boy, that’s telling. Bet this Skip Trimble character is a one-man grievance group.
Good luck! The hogs will never ever be truly eliminated, let alone controlled.
Per gallon of fuel and number of pigs killed I bet they don’t even cut into the birth/death rate of a 1.5 million population statewide.
If they REALLY want to have fun hook up a shotgun to a big drone and let people control it from their computer. Just have an employee with a on/off override switch for safety.
Dentists from all over the place would flock to do it...
Darn it, where’s PETA when you really want them on the ground..
People don’t hunt them from choppers out here-just on the ground with a rifle-but the hogs get either butchered at home or at a locker plant and end up the same as any hog-on the table. Most of those big-bucks thrill hunters don’t even eat the deer they bag, never mind the hogs-a lot of them won’t eat game meat.
If more people would eat the damn hogs instead of just thrill shooting, they probably could be controlled to a better extent-and it is a natural, healthy source of really free ranging pork.
Some people trap the young wild hogs and add them to domestic hog herds-they produce a leaner, and more flavorful pork than the mostly-fat domestic hogs. I happen to like lean meat, and game meat is that...
They must not taste good.
they taste excellent. I’ve shot a few myself. from a deer blind, though, not from a helicopter.
If I lived where these things are, I think I’d have the hole dug and the beer bought before heading out hunting...whole hog BBQ!
There’s only one thing I want to know....how good do these wild pigs taste when barbecued? Or are they too gamey to eat?
“Bacon is a present pigs give you if you’re good”
That pulp fiction guy in the Arby’s commercial
they claim it’s very good- (although I imagine it must stink to high heaven when cleaning the hogs- I know peccary have an awful smell- wild hogs likely smell pretty bad too)
At home on the family ranch in SW Texas, BBQ like whole animals is done in the real pit like that-usually overnight-but out here it is solid limestone with a few inches of dirt-you’d need a backhoe to dig a proper pit...
“of a 1.5 million population statewide.”
Should be emphasized to Muslims thinking of relocating to Texas;)
Wow, Texas is real sty.
Um, you sure it wasn’t a pig blind?
We need to hire these guys!
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