Posted on 02/16/2016 7:38:54 PM PST by BenLurkin
Hunters could help reduce the population of destructive and dangerous feral hogs in Missouri if they would stop shooting them, according to officials who are considering banning feral hog hunting on land owned or managed by the state conservation department.
The ban's goal is to completely eradicate the feral hogs, which multiply rapidly and do extensive damage to land, water and habitat, conservation officials said.
Past efforts to control the feral hog population failed, in part because some hunters took hogs to new sites to set up hunting opportunities. Five years ago, state and federal agencies committed to eradication rather than control, and in 2014, Missouri received $235,000 as part of $20 million in federal funds appropriated for eradication efforts in several states.
Conservation agents bait traps with feed to attract hogs to the traps, in a process that can take several weeks. When the animals are comfortable in the corral-like traps, the trap is sprung and most of a herd - called a sounder - is caught.
If a hunter shoots one or two of the hogs around the traps, the rest will scatter to another site, where they breed quickly and damage land and natural resources, conservation agents said.
...
"Much of my life has been dedicated to protecting the rights of hunters," Butler said. "But we need to eliminate these animals rather than developing a culture of hog hunters in the state."
Some people are skeptical about the efforts, though.
J.D. Caperton, a hunter from rural Naylor in southeast Missouri, said he thinks the state is "kidding itself" if it thinks feral hogs will be eradicated or that all hunters will abide by the ban.
(Excerpt) Read more at hannibal.net ...
yep live right in the middle of this fight....we got a few dogs that can bay up a pig or two...sad day for me..what do you expect from a dept of conservation which starts furbearing season at the same time as rifle deer season. Which means if I want to hunt raccoon with dogs either I wait two weeks or just hunt the dogs at night and make damn sure I get them out of the wood’s by daylight. Or be shot by a deer hunter. Easier to hunt furbearing animals during the day for a old man.
Hogs need to be stopped any way possible. Stalking, from a tree stand, from your front porch, dogs, traps any safe way to do it period.
yikes you may want to grain that animal for while
the argument is not wither to kill the pig... but WHO will kill the pig
Ain't that the truth.
Back when Missouri’s Ozarks were all small farmers hogs were no problem, never saw a single one nor sign of any on our land... it was easy to go hunting as almost everyone was friendly and you could hunt anywhere just by asking. Old style hunters, locals, left no traces, they were your neighbors and respected our land as if it was their own. But then I notice that land speculators have been moving in and buying up or getting leasing rights on everything they can get for “furriners” [out of staters] to deal in hunting leases. Seems as soon as a little hunting lease industry took root , first for deer and turkey, it wasn’t long before the hog problem arose in the west and moved east.
They plant food plots of nonnative plants so any idiot can sit there and make a kill on wildlife that’s been dumbed down enough for them. And they run ATV trails everywhere as bad as hogs, muddying up the ponds and streams. They come and go, never building a knowledge of the land or animals as a local does; where a local might pass over an animal that has finally had a good break in a string of unlucky years, take out one that’s been a nuisance, or pass over one that has particularly good attributes so as to see the same attributes passed to another generation, no such consideration or empathy can be expected from strangers. They’ll shoot the best because they think they deserved it for the fee they paid on the lease.
There’s a big spring where we used to have family reunions that was on a crystal clear river but the last time I saw it hogs were crapping and rooting all over upstream.
Now that they’ve reintroduced elk, I am hopeful to get to hunt one there some day, but fear it will bring in big moneyed hunters and with them, a push to displace local traditionalists by lawyers grabbing land for hunting clubs. Then it will become like some of the southern states where to hunt at all, you must join a club.
They taste good when they are young. The old ones are inedible, unless you are starving.
Actually, elk never existed in the part of the state where they stocked them.
It’s just a ruse. Once an elk population gets established there will be restrictions on property use to “protect” them.
Dhimmirats don’t like their relatives shot..
Hogs are on state land, horses federal. Plus the horses are part of the western legacy, and they’re cool and we generally don’t eat them...
If you are going to trap them, keep them alive and release them in Iran or Syria.
In 1971 the US Congress passed the wild horse and burro act at the behest of the animal rights groups. This federal law prevents the hunting, and or harassment of these animals. The only method of controlling the proliferation is rounding them up and selling them to people willing to adopt them. They cannot be killed for any reason, as far as I know.
The argument they used is that the horses and burros were part of America’s western heritage. The fact that they are not indigenous to North America did not matter.
The wild Horses and burros defecate and urinate in the water holes. They destroy the browse. This destroys the carrying capacity of the land for huntable species.
Feral hogs to not have the same starry eyed supporters that the wild horses and burros have. Hence, they are available to be hunted and eaten.
Yep! Up to about 250 lbs is just fine.
Hunters could help reduce the population of destructive and dangerous feral hogs in Missouri if they would stop shooting them
Upsidedown world
Anyone that transports feral hogs from one place to another to release them into the wild is making the problem worse and should be heavily fined and/or lose their hunting license.
Yep. The problem is really bad in Sweden. You now can hunt hogs 24/7/365, no limit.
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