Saturday, September 3, 2011

And it's about time

Texas finally got serious about feral pig control.  There's only one way to make something effective.  Let the free market take control.  Up until now, the farmers/ranchers had to pay companies to do serious pig eradication like this.  Now, I know there are nigh thousands of hunters that say they would gladly hunt pigs for FREE on someone's property, but that just isn't efficient.  These things are rampantly out of control and you need to be killing dozens a day (if not hundreds) on one property to make a dent.  Problem is, not many ranchers/farmers have the money to pay someone to do this.  Now, with the ability to let others pay that will enjoy themselves, the financial burden can be lifted from the property owner and we can do some serious pig killing.  $475/hour is pretty steep for the average Joe, but I'm hoping the price will drop as more companies come on-line to take advantage of this.  Just for fun, imagine this:

http://youtu.be/kLejlibClio

It is a little cheesy, but it's a promo video and they tend to be that way.

All this being said, here is the downside of this.  I'm sure the meat is not all harvested.  I know from some of the vids I've seen using shotgun, you wouldn't want it anyway.  I'm first and foremost a meat hunter.  I understand taking every possible scrap you can because it's how I was raised.  However, at some point it becomes a matter of management.  Maybe some of the hunters will find a way to get the carcasses, but you can only eat so much pig at a time.  I would imagine FDA rules and regs when it comes to harvesting game for public consumption are impossible to navigate when you're dealing with this kind of operation.  Ultimately, control the population and use what you can.

6 comments:

  1. One issue is that some of the pigs have brucellosis, which means the pig cannot be eaten... AND you can only check for it when they are ALIVE... e.g. rack em, stack em, and burn em...

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  2. Good point, NFO. We haven't really had any issues with that around here and we tend to hunt in cool weather. Also, knowing how to cook it is important. All of that said, I don't know that I'd take meat harvested this way. Running an animal before the kill is a sure way to make the meat funky.

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  3. Hunting from Helicopters.

    Pork Choppers!

    Makes me wish I'd added the R/W rating to the ATP.

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  4. Oh, Brigid, if you did I'd pay for your trip down so we could do some damage. I'm sure between our place and the neighbors, we'd have people lining up. Only thing is that the pilot doesn't seem to be able to have the fun. It's not like switching places in a hunting truck. :)

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  5. Funny story here. Near my folks ranch, people were reporting UFO's for about a week (this was about six months ago). It ends up it was night time hunting expeditions using helicopters and lights....

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  6. Sounds fun. When do we get to?

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