[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

New sport here, hunting wild hogs!

I didn't know this problem existed!

[friendly]

Uh, hunters and practical use of the 2nd Amendment anyone? HELLO???

[Salvation]

**The other concern biologists have is that the pigs can eat large numbers of native species. Being omnivores, they can eat anything that moves, so long as it is small enough for them to kill. The list is long and covers amphibians, reptiles, small mammals -- frogs, lizards, snakes, mice and even small fawns.**

This would seem to be a big problem.

[demlosers]

Hog hunt!

[ex-Texan]

Check out this report:

Remains of five victims found at B.C. property of alleged killer

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PORT COQUITLAM, B.C. -- Police found remains of five of the 15 women Robert Pickton is accused of killing in their search of the pig farm he owns with his siblings, a defense lawyer said.

Reading from an affidavit that complains the prosecution has given the defense insufficient information, lawyer Marilyn Sandford on Monday provided some of the first public details of the case against Pickton, 53, who faces 15 first-degree murder charges.

A painstaking search of two properties - the pig farm on Dominion Avenue and a nearby plot where Pickton and his brother ran a party house known as Piggy's Palace - has yielded remains and DNA evidence in what police call the biggest serial killer investigation in Canadian history.

Canadian Serial Killer Fed Victims to His Hogs !

[vetvetdoug]

The answer to the problem is obvious but the tree huggers will never go for it until their habitat is TOTALLY destroyed. Then its too late.

[Experiment 6-2-6]

PETA PING!

Being omnivores, they can eat anything that moves, so long as it is small enough for them to kill. The list is long and covers amphibians, reptiles, small mammals -- frogs, lizards, snakes, mice and even small fawns.

Actually, I remember a story of a boat that sank with a cargo of pigs.

The good news is that the pigs survived by swimming to a small island.

The bad news was that the island was populated by rattlesnakes. No one figured any pigs would survive..

The really good news was when the owners finally showed up on the island to collect what few hides could be salvaged, they discovered ALL the pigs were not only alive but MUCH FATTER since the boat sank. (the pigs ate the snakes, for you slow freepers out there)

So now Kalifornia will outlaw piggies, county by county. Not sure what that will do to... But more importantly, what are Greenies to do when animals (and not humans) impact soft, cuddly and furry critters? My guess is that it will be nothing but silence, just like the immigration problem where illegals stopped on their way North and ate the eggs of endangered species...

Meega, Nala Kweesta!

[PAR35]

creating spaces where it is illegal to introduce or even harbor pigs.

Sounds like the islamic thing to do.

A better solution would be to hire Maruice Bessinger to serve them with mustard sauce. http://www.mauricesbbq.com/

[catpuppy]

Shoot, skin, cook and eat. Beginning of a great barbeque. End of pig problem.

[umgud]

I've been hunting wild pigs in CA for years. I usually try to hunt on public lands, but the best hunting is on private land where you have to know someone or pay someone to hunt (which I won't do for pigs).

[Fiddlstix]

Bump

[Hugin]

Every few months I read one of these agravating stories. There are lots of hunters who would love to go hunt pigs in Henry Coe park (a huge area just outside of San Jose). These same people (like me) pay several hundred dollars to hunt them on private ranches a couple hours south of here. But do you think the powers that be will allow it? No way. Not even bowhunters. They could make a lot of money selling permits, but instead they spend thousands of dollars to trap and release a handful of them, and in a few months it's right back to the same old story.

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

A creek that was filled with fresh water until yesterday now looks like a muddy bog. The ground all around is dug up, and ferns and plants lie trampled. She doesn't need to look at the huge, round, footprints in the mud to guess where the blame lies. The culprits are wild pigs, non-native, sharp-tusked, black bristly marauders who have been causing havoc across Northern California's landscape with increasing frequency.

WHO LET THE LIBERALS OUT ...OINK...OINK...OINK...OINK

[crystalk]

How did "30 tusked boars" "birth piglets" at the apartment complex?

I am not sure that even 100 times that many boars could have done it.

[MarkL]

Nothing that a S&W Model 29, or one of those nifty Ruger .44Mag carbines wouldn't take care of!

All those years that people have been doing handgun siloutte shooting at plate steel pigs can come in handy!
Mark

[Happy2BMe]

I say round 'em all up, load 'em on C130's, hook a parachute up to their a$$e$ and mass airdrop them over Baghdad!

[185JHP]

What effect would Ritalin have on these beasts? Could it be put in their waterholes? Failing that, how about tagging and lobotomizing them? That assault on the apartment complex could be an entertaining TV movie. Does Martin Sheen know about this? How big is his estate?

[xm177e2]

Allowing hunters to pay a fee and then get rid of the pigs would be a good solution, especially because the parks systems are so strapped for cash right now.

But the weenie left-wing bureaucrats don't want to let hunters in because anything that rocks the boat could be bad for their careers (they're more careerist than politically correct). All it would take is one dumb hunter to put a bullet into a house near one of the parks, and their would be a public outcry.

There is a solution to this--that is to let a Ranger guide the sport hunters. It could be done early in the morning, before the park opens, so the ranger would not be needed elsewhere, and there would be no people around to accidentally get shot. The ranger could make sure the hunters aren't going off park property or shooting from somewhere that was dangerous. If the park charged the hunters enough, it could be profitable. Some hunters might be willing to pay the higher fees to help the parks system; others might like the convenience of being able to hunt nearby (I don't know what the hog-hunting situation is in the Bay Area, but most of the parks are very close to major cities).

They could charge a thousand dollars to lead a hunt, and then pay hunters back $100 for every pig they killed (or whatever, I'm just throwing out figures here). Hunters could take and eat the pigs (after all, they're non-native), or they could leave them to rot (it's a park, that's what dead animals do there). Hunters could go in during the early morning (Is that a time when hogs are active?), hunt, and have their guns put away/a pig on the barbie by the time regular park visitors come. None of the park visitors would even have to see the guns (which might offend them, this being the Bay Area and whatnot).

[Grampa Dave]

A little history is indicated here. There are wild hogs and feral hogs/pigs in California.

When the Russians had a settlement in Fort Ross in N. California on the coast, they brought over their Russian Boars for food and to breed for hunting.

The descendants of those Wild Russian Boars are still in those areas (isolated areas of the Russian River up the coast to ?).

These are huge wild boars. They are very scary. It is a lot of fun to be fishing for Steelhead early in the morning and hear what sounds like clumsy fisherman. You turn to the noise and see several of these mean and ugly critters out in the water crossing or eating plants at the edge of the river. You really feel secure armed with a graphite fly rod that weighs a few ounces versus a mean wild Russian Boar that may weight 2-3 hundred pounds.

These wild hogs will breed with feral hogs.

Most of the so called wild hogs are feral hogs. They got loose from farms or were put there by some whackos. Within a few generations, Darwin rids the herd of the domestic hog/pig genes. What is left is a semi wild feral offspring. They are mean, lean and a destroyer of anything that gets in its way. They will breed 2 to 3 times per year.

When they come to a new area to root around and ruin, you can track their paths very easily. If twenty hogs/pigs are in the group, the path might be 20 to 40 feet wide or more with the dirt turned over by their hooves or snouts up to 1 foot deep depending on the season. Wet times of the year like now, they can root down a foot or more with no problem.

There is only one way to handle them. You have private hunters or professional hunters kill them. All of them must be killed. Leave one male and one female and in a year or two, the problem is back again.

The Bravo Sierra suggestions of capturing, stunning, sterilizing them and relocating them could end up costing over $1,000 per hog/pig. Where ever they are transferred, they will destroy that environment.

Of course the Bambi lovers, Peta Freaks and Critters over Human whackos will not allow hunters to kill these invaders. So the problem will increase and left wing legislators will create study groups and non profit groups which will be funded with our tax $'s to study the problem. When that happens, there will be no solution, and the problem will grow in the number of ferral hogs/pigs, areas infected and costs to our society.