No, she wasn’t hunting. No, she wasn’t out in the sticks somewhere. Chirstine Rollins was visiting the home of a client in Anahuac, Texas, an exurb east of Houston just south of I-10 when she was set upon by feral hogs.
From the scene the local sheriff found, it appears that she was attacked in her client’s yard after she got out of her car in the home’s driveway early Sunday morning.
“In my 35 years, I will tell you it’s one of the worst things I’ve ever seen,” [Sheriff Brian] Hawthorne told reporters.
As Sheriff Hawthorne says in his statement above, Rollins died due to exsanguination due to feral hog assault. In other words, she bled to death after the pigs attacked and bit her multiple times.
As we’ve noted before, Texas is fighting a losing battle against a plague of feral hogs. We got ’em bad and that ain’t good.
Texas alone is home to millions of the destructive critters, but the problem is hardly confined to the Lone Star State.
![Feral hogs pigs in the United States](https://cdn0.thetruthaboutguns.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Feral-hog-distribution-2015-qdma-1.jpg)
While attacks on humans are rare, the little bastards do billions of dollars of damage to crops and property every year. As Smithsonianmag.com puts it . . .
Wild hogs are “opportunistic omnivores,” meaning they’ll eat most anything. Using their extra-long snouts, flattened and strengthened on the end by a plate of cartilage, they can root as deep as three feet. They’ll devour or destroy whole fields—of sorghum, rice, wheat, soybeans, potatoes, melons and other fruits, nuts, grass and hay. Farmers planting corn have discovered that the hogs go methodically down the rows during the night, extracting seeds one by one.
Hogs erode the soil and muddy streams and other water sources, possibly causing fish kills. They disrupt native vegetation and make it easier for invasive plants to take hold. The hogs claim any food set out for livestock, and occasionally eat the livestock as well, especially lambs, kids and calves. They also eat such wildlife as deer and quail and feast on the eggs of endangered sea turtles.
In other words we can’t possibly kill enough of them.
Poisoning pigs proved politically problematic, though, and probably won’t be on the slate of approved management methods any time soon. At least not here in Texas.
In the mean time, Texans continue to fight the porcine plague the old fashioned way . . .
Take 1 lb tannerite inside 3 gallon bucket filled with nails or other forms of shrapnel. Spread corn in a 8 ft circle around said bucket. Wait for hogs to begin feeding. Let the fun begin. These animals are nothing to screw with. I grew up on a farm that raised free range hogs in large confined pens. Even in a domesticated environment they can be extremely aggressive. They will eat anything including each other. Until the politicians and bureaucrats tell the animal rights nut jobs to take a hike in hog country. Nothing will stop them as an invasive species. Although they would make an excellent tool for the elimination of politicians,bureaucrats and animal rights nut jobs. Keep Your Powder Dry.
100% agree.. improvised explosive devices should be employed to take these things out.
Darkman,
I see you did an outstanding job living up to your namesake with this comment!
Thanks…Many years of experience have taught me to be decisive when facing problems. Pussyfooting around an issue results in continued problems. Identify the problem. Remove obstacles. Fix problem… Keep Your Powder Dry. .
I seem to recall the Investigators of the Boston Marathon Bombings going into EXTENSIVE details about the pressure cooker devices used, and the lamestream media ran the details for weeks on end, just as they were commanded by their demoncrapic overlords.
Many popular shows/series viewable on streaming services, Netflix and cable TV also provide the details, just as they are commanded by their demoncrapic overlords.
Wait a minute, am I seeing a pattern here, do the demoncrapic overlords ACTUALLY facilitate violence and death to restrict citizens rights and intrude on their privacy?
The media even made the brothers names readily know by almost everyone, even to this day.
Great way to show sick people how to make themselves famous you morons.
@ James Campbell:
Typical Liberal Snowflake. Once their argument fails to work. They resort to name calling.
yep
I learned how to make IED’s more than 50 years ago. Because of proper up bringing by my father. I never used them against another person. Learning how is now a few clicks away. The upbringing part is out of my hands now. My son’s know how and know better. Others upbringing is not my concern. Failed parenting is one of the biggest problems We face as a society. Knowing how is easy. Doing requires something most parents no longer possess. But alas that is for another time and another discussion. “Be polite…Be professional and have a plan to kill everyone you meet.” General “Mad Dog” Matos.
Better yet, capture them and drop them in the Islamic countries. Let them do the work for us.
Hogs are why I carry plenty of pew pew with me in Texas. That and people up to no good.
Hogs are why I bought a POF P308 SPR Gen4 EDGE AR-10 this year. Been shooting it with BUIS (Diamondhead MicroDs), RDS (Sig Sauer Romeo4S), and a scope (Leupold Mark5 HD) . The CEO is getting me an IR scope for Christmas (don’t yell her, it’s a surprise).
I’ll be doing some hog hunts in 2020 with it.
An 8.5″ or 10″ 300AAC/BLK pistol is on my shopping list but priorities. Until then. two mags of 9MM staggered ball + hollow point will have to do. Not carrying my .308 with me every time I go outside when I’ve yet to even see a hog in my area. I have found rooting some distance from here though.
I should also add that I don’t hunt hogs, the .300AAC pistol is a personal defense weapon against them should I run into them. If I was hunting them, I wouldn’t hunt, I’m too lazy and would just trap them around a feeder like my neighbors do.
Haven’t done much hunting in recent years, I get to the pistol range at least once a month, rifle range every other month, minimum.
I have a few friends at D/FW area gun stores that arrange hog hunts (ground and heli), will be taking advantage of the opportunity in the near future.
Oh, LORD yes! How about a semi worth released in downtown D.C. about once a week? Would that be fun, or what!?
They wouldn’t last a week. If the locals did not eat them. THE POLITICIANS KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH PORK!
This is where high capacity AR 10 hundred round drum works miracles. So many hogs, so little time. And to think it has been said civilians have no need for full automatic weapons,
Saw this story on the news & FB. Horrible. Raise any bounty and I think you could put a large dent in the pig problem.
Doubtful. The problem is that they are everywhere, they are smart and mobile, and reproduce at astounding rates. I’ve been hunting feral hogs in Texas for over 45 years, and the problem has gotten worse every year
The problem is that you might eradicate them on your property, but if your neighbors don’t the pigs will be back in a matter of weeks. Add to the fact that some idiots don’t want them eradicated so that they can continue to charge ridiculous prices for hog hunts.
About the only real solution I can see would be to have the state *require* large landowners in infested areas to have an approved hog eradication plan in place — the landowner either has to kill them himself, have friends do it, have a deal with professional guides who bring people in, bring in professional trappers / hunters, etc. Fail to get the hog problem on your land under control and you start getting fined and/or the gov’t can bring in professionals to root them out do so (and send you the bill).
Perhaps a combination of carrots and sticks. E.g., “our wildlife survey indicates that you need to kill 100 feral hogs on your property this year to start making a dent in things. If you can’t show you’ve done so by the end of the year, you’ll get fined. However, for every pig over 100 you kill, we’ll pay you a bounty of $X. For every pig over 200 you kill, we’ll pay $2X.”
I don’t typically like solutions that require governmental action, but the hog problem in Texas is a variant of the problem in economics known as the Tragedy of the Commons. Unless there is a solution that requires all landowners in the effected areas to take concerted action, the problem will just keep popping up.
^^^ This
“The problem is that they are everywhere, they are smart and mobile, and reproduce at astounding rates.”
****
Sounds like our SoCal ground squirrels. They’re incredibly destructive, and tear up entire hillsides with their burrows, making them vulnerable to partial collapse/slide during heavy rains. You can shoot, trap, or poison them all day long, and they just rebound the following year.
“Sounds like our SoCal ground squirrels. ”
Geeze, and I thought you were talking about your SoCal Politicos!
One of those little bastards ate my car’s wiring harness, cost me $850 to fix. Broke out the good old air rifle, sure enough drops ground squirrels real fine. Now stays loaded and ready in the garage for any “recurrences”.
LKB,
I would argue that there is a righteous basis for your proposal based on the following principles.
Principle #1:
Of course government should never insist willy-nilly to go on someone’s property. That would violate their property rights.
Principle #2:
People must not provide safe-harbor for an existential threat to our economy and our lives.
Principle #3:
In the event that someone is not willing to eliminate an existential threat to our economy and our lives on his/her property, then he/she is righteously obligated to allow someone else to eliminate the existential threat.
The really fun part is deciding who pays for the effort to eliminate the existential threat if the property owner is unwilling to voluntarily eliminate the threat themselves. Since the threat is to our entire society, I would argue that our entire society should bear the cost of eliminating that threat if the property owner is unwilling or unable to pay for it.
” if the property owner is unwilling or unable to pay for it ”
No problem. Out here in suburbia, if you don’t mow your lawn, the city will do it for you, whether you like it or not (they do send you a notice first). And then they will send you a bill for it. Precedent set.
Sounds like a foot in the door to socialism and totalitarianism. If a property owner lets wild hogs / nature run free on their property, that’s their business and it isn’t the state or anyone else’ place to tell them otherwise. Private property is private property. Maybe people like having hogs for whatever reason, I like having coyotes, deer and rabbits, one of the deer was so tame that I could walk within 15ft of it before it got spooked, mice and rabbits feed the yotes which yip yap every other night, all of them are edible to me.
Hogs are not an existential threat, just a pain in the ass. People pay to hunt them now and other people have made a business in raising them to be hunted. I stopped producing food because people just wouldn’t pay for it and wanted it cheaper than the already heavily subsidized food in the grocery store, against which I can’t compete on a fair and level playing field. Naturally I sought other means of income, I can’t blame anyone else for looking to anything they can for a living in these days of free money to the big fish.
Of course, hogs are a liability to me, mine, and my customers, so naturally if I see them, I’ll hit them with whatever I have on hand, chainsaw and machete included if they cross me while clearing brush.
Arc, that’s all true so long as the property owner insures that the critters cannot *escape* his property. Which is not real easy where the piggies are concerned, especially when they reach 300-800 lbs, they kinda go where they please. Still, I don’t think any of these half-assed measures will do much, given these things can have their first litter when they are 8 months old. They cannot be hunted to extinction, only solution I see is trapping or poison, and poison scares me. BTW, where I am the deer are so tame I can drive my car within 5 feet of them without spooking them. I don’t consider that a good thing, and I suggest open season on deer, year around, if your only weapon is a knife.
Larry, you are missing the whole part about it being ridiculous to hold people liable for the wildlife that passes through their land. Its like throwing someone in prison for possession of restricted animal parts all because a hawk decided shed a feather on the land owners property.
If someone is raising pigs as livestock, by all means there better be a fence up, but telling someone to fence their land in because there are wild pigs on it is utterly asinine.
I’d love to come back down to Texas to shoot hogs, but I can’t afford the daily rate. So, I watch the action through folks like Todd Huey of Huey outdoors. (If you have instagram, he’s @loan_star_boars
Exactly. If people did not charge me to hunt feral hogs off of their property, I would go. I guess it isn’t that big of a problem.
+1 The charges for hog hunting are outrageous.
Gota make a living somehow. Not to mention that its a liability to have random strangers shooting guns on your property and if someone screws up or does something stupid, there will be bills to pay. Liability insurance isn’t free.
Then Texans need to stop complaining about wild hogs. Sorry for the poor lady but it looks like Texas landowners have a profit to score.
We’re going to a place just south of OKC in a couple of weeks. $100/day… Didn’t seem too bad, we’ll see if we get some hogs!
People are charging you? I have never paid a dime to hunt hogs in Texas. Most landowners just want them dead. I have never killed a trophy on these “cleanup” hunts but the target practice has been fantastic.
You don’t even need a hunting licence to hunt hogs here in Texas. Shoot them on sight, just be careful what’s behind them, could be cows, cars or houses. Farmers will be grateful, all you have to do is ask most landowners.
“Farmers will be grateful, all you have to do is ask most landowners.”
Yeah… I don’t believe that is true. The information I could find suggest you’re more likely to be run off at gun point for trespassing if you try to go looking for someone to ask. The owners home may be a 1/2 mile or more up the drive from the road and trespass is a BIG as Texas sore spot for a large part of land owners. If you were not invited expressly, you are not welcome. Maybe, if you know someone, who may know someone, who can make contact with the owner on your behalf, then MAYBE, otherwise you will probably need to pay for the privilege to hunt.
Not sure what you are trying to enunciate. But, sure many places charge you to hunt hogs; however, most of those provide some services in return, such as guides, meat prep, etc. Florida does not require a license n private property. I am sure Texas is no different than Florida. However, if you search diligently, you will find a farmer grateful for your hog cleanup abilities who will not charge you, or a state agency willing to pay a stipend or a salary (Florida recently had a $50,000 per year offering for qualified hog hunters)
In Texas, no season, no limit, day or night, thermal scopes, machine guns from helicopters, nothing even close to like it. Old ones, babies, I’m sure you could use grenades if you could source some.
This, almost all of my neighbors have cows and random shooters is a no-go. Shoot a cow and its >$2,000 bill the land owner has to eat unless the hog hunter sticks around or it can be proven. Shooting at farm dogs, shooting in the wrong direction across busy roads, its not worth the risks.
Apache helicopters. Let the military have target practice.
I would think the taxpayers cost per dead hog would exceed $1000.00.
Q; Want to find the least effective and most costly way to do something?
A; Bring in the beauracracy.
My Uncle had a Special Forces ODA visit his Texas ranch once for a little “training” with hogs. They got zero kills – despite the use of night vision and drones…
It doesn’t matter how good the gear. Hunting is about stealth and quiet, the exact opposite of the way militaries are trained. There’s a reason why Major Plaster sought out hunters to be his potential snipers. He called it “close to the land”, but whatever you call it, the man who is comfortable in the woods will always have more hunting success than a military that only know shooting it up instead. Even with a dozen gunships covering a couple hundred acres with miniguns, they might get a hog or two per 100,000 rounds fired, mostly through random chance. A good hunter will have a very much better success rate than that…. like thousands of times better.
At least Texas has the means to combat the problem, California is going to be in a world of hurt since they are largely disarmed in the battle against this threat. Porky is gonna kick some Democrat ass, can’t shoot them, can’t poison them, what ya gonna do?
May they enter Sacramento and feast….and FEAST well!
I left that hell hole a year plus back and would only come back to begging to kill hogs…..or politicians….same difference..LOL
No difference between hogs and politicians? I’m sensing someone who’s read George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”!
I left CA 12 years ago! Feral Hogs were running the state then! Haven’t seen anything that’s changed!
Did they at least change the rule in CA to read “no politician shall sleep in a bed”…. WITH SHEETS?
I like that part. I’ve noticed over the years whatever the rules are… they won’t be that for long. Its so much easier to control the sheeple when you keep them guessing, never knowing from moment to moment what is legal or illegal. So much easier to win when one can change the rules in their favor whenever they want.
That and: Humans are pigs. That’s my two pull quotes from “Animal Farm”.
It is not the same difference and it is shameful for people to say that. While I dislike aall of our politicians without exception, there is no way I would ever endorse killing them. Only true fascists, communists, pyschos, etc. would suggest such a thing. Yes all of the politicians should be gone, so then vote them out and for many put them in jail.
Human life is precious. And we wonder and ask ourselves what is wrong with society and why there are so many mass killers. Seriously, just look at some of the comments on this page.
“It is not the same difference and it is shameful for people to say that. While I dislike all of our politicians without exception, there is no way I would ever endorse killing them. Only true fascists, communists, pyschos, etc. would suggest such a thing.”
“the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”
as stated by Fascist/commie/psycho, Thomas Jefferson
Shame you can’t see the issue as damned near ALL politicians are tyrants (ESP in California), but here’s another quote to remind you of your problem.
“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. … May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”.
Samuel Adams
Best your liberty-hating FUDD self just set this one out.
@BoG 2.0
“Laws made by common consent must not be trampled on by individuals.”
-THOMAS JEFFERSON, letter to Colonel Vanmeter, Apr. 27, 1781
I seriously doubt that Jefferson would endorse murdering a democratically-elected politician in violation of laws against murder, which exist by common consent.
“I seriously doubt that Jefferson would endorse murdering a democratically-elected politician in violation of laws against murder, which exist by common consent.”
He stated it in plain English. I seriously doubt you understand his meaning. I think you meant to say “a democratically elected politician who violates your enumerated civil rights under threat of murder”.
Yeah, I’m guessing you haven’t paid much attention to all the killing of each other was going on in just the decade prior to the writing and signing of 2A, huh? Think that was just a rumor? What a silly statement. The British intended to murder ALL elected officials.
The last time I hunted pigs here in CA in addition to my hunting license I had to have a 22 dollar tag for every pig shot. And the farmers that were wailing about the hog damage wanted you to pay them 4-600 bucks for every ‘problem’ pig you killed.
I root, get it, for the pigs these days. Go Porky. Eat the whole frigging state.
Wow, that’s ridiculous
The Texas poisoning initiative was killed primarily by a politically connected and wealthy guy that runs the Wild Boar Meat Company. Environmental and animal rights groups played a very small role in shutting down the latest attempt at controlling these pigs, compared to this guy. It’s an example of crony capitalism at its worst.
I’m against poisoning. It causes the animal to suffer, and leaves a poisoned carcass for other scavengers (coyotes, raccoons, hawks, ravens) to eat and suffer from as well. No bueno.
However, I’m all for shooting those piggies.
Warfarin isn’t a poison like you’re thinking. In fact, it’s a blood thinner approved by the FDA for use in humans. It doesn’t contain heavy metals, doesn’t bioaccumulate (or subsequently bioconcentrate) and is both biodegradable and has an extremely short metabolic half-life. The reason Scimetrics chose it as a posion is precisely because all other poisons had been rejected by the EPA for exactly the reasons you listed. In the rapid delivery carrier they developed, however, warfarin can be used to cause fatal OD symptoms (hypoxia and/or heart attack) shortly after near complete metabolism in a hog. It was literally a perfect solution and it was, in fact, killed by one very rich man who had money to lose from the problem being solved. He was more than happy to let the animal rights nuts take the “credit” though.
Indeed, poison is right up there with treble hooks and crushed glass. Its a problem that keeps on causing more problems. Bullets, explosives, hog traps, all good, but poison should always remain illegal.
I say do an offshoot of helicopter hunting, and start up machine gun hunting. Get a squad together, equip them with belt-feds, set up with overlapping fields of fire and wait for them. “Pigs for Pigs”.
@Survivordude1090 A few miles from my home near Bryan, Texas, near College Station ( Teas A & M ), about 100 miles North / Northwest of Houston, you’ll find Helibacon. (http://helibacon.com ) As you might guess, this experience involved a helicopter to shoot hogs. Better still, you can shoot a machine gun from a helicopter. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgE2GXP4ZKM
I miss the days when this article would have ended with “Home carry, people. Home carry.”
Well, it’s a little late to miss the sensible few, now that you’ve ran them all off. How like an anti, to complain about getting exactly what they spent years working on.
So. You’ve just self identified as not one of the ‘sensible few’.
I have no idea what you are even talking about, but I suspect you don’t either.
(snicker)
Voldamort is referring to some spats you and he got into several months ago. Even I remember that, and I wasn’t part of the arguments.
Haz. You’re wasting your time. JWT cannot remember what he writes down from one day to the next. He sure does get mad when you catch him at it red handed though 🙂 He is so easy to needle that I suspect that’s why I keep doing it…
I think in this case it should have been just carry as she was arriving at a clients home.
Home carry is spot on JW.
I live in a nice bedroom community in the D/FW area, and even carry when walking the dog at night. Seen a few LARGE bobcats in the area, just a matter of time before I come upon a feral hog.
Saw a cat, years ago, on US 271, just south of the Red River. Came out of the woods on my left, and kind of facing me. I saw a big-chested mountain lion, at that point. Cat crossed the road ahead of me, looked weird. He disappeared into the woods on my right, and he looked more like a bobcat than anything – downright scrawny in comparison to the big head and chest I saw previously. Still, quite a large animal. I’ve often wondered if that animal was some kind of hybrid.
FWIW, there are a lot of big cats in the river bottoms. My middle son came face to face (about 25 feet) with a monster black cat when he was still a kid. When I investigated, the cat’s tracks were 1 1/5 times the size of my palms. At a guess, that was a 200 pound cat.
Wouldn’t that be “Yard carry, people. Yard carry.”
Except it was neither her yard or her home.
Just “Carry, people. Carry.” should suffice.
If I leave my house going anywhere I have a gun with me because you never know what is going to happen
To everything there is a season, JWTaylor.
After first reading an article on the plague of feral hogs some time ago I looked into making a trip to Texas for a hunt. It became apparent pretty quickly that there is far too much money to be made selling your feral pigs for huge profit for anyone to ever want them eradicated from their hunting ranch. For many they are not a problem, but a source of income for them selves and the many staff they require to run the business. I don’t see the problem ever going away as long as land owners can profit off of sustaining the hog population. Hell, I’d raise cockroaches in my home if I could make people pay to try and get rid of them. I understand that it is a problem for most, but for the many who are making lemonade out of the lemons that life has handed them should have to pay for the right to set up a lemonade stand. Until it is more financially painful to have hogs on your property than it is to raise them for hunting opportunities for outsiders, Texas will continue to be a hog heaven.
“Hell, I’d raise cockroaches in my home if I could make people pay to try and get rid of them.”
Something like that happened in India when they decided to put a bounty on cobra snakes :
“The British government was concerned about the number of venomous cobra snakes in Delhi. The government therefore offered a bounty for every dead cobra. Initially this was a successful strategy as large numbers of snakes were killed for the reward. Eventually, however, enterprising people began to breed cobras for the income. When the government became aware of this, the reward program was scrapped, causing the cobra breeders to set the now-worthless snakes free. As a result, the wild cobra population further increased. The apparent solution for the problem made the situation even worse.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobra_effect
If I recall correctly, it was tried with rats somewhere else, and got similar results…
For any particular problem, the correct solution 95% of the time is for government to completely butt out. If projected solutions include *any* expenditure of tax dollars, raise that to 98%.
Sad but, she should of been armed!
Instead of Dems spending trillions to confiscate our guns why don’t Trump offer 10bucks a ear for every hog and donate the meat to the homeless!
Or just give me some helicopters with mini-guns.
What better practice on moving targets for our military…..hogs look like terrorist anyway!
Why don’t we catch them all and drop them for ISIS.
I’m trying to figure out the difference between feral hogs and Democrats. So far, I’m at a loss.
Feral hogs are more honest than a democrat.
They smell better too. Looking at you Eric Swalwell.
^^^ This ^^^
There are some good uses for feral hogs.
Good one.
The difference is Feral Hogs you can eat. Demorats taste like shit.
That’s what Monica Lewinsky said.
There’s skid marks in front of a dead hog on the road.
Best comment on TTAG today! Hahahaha.
any natural predators?
Not in Texas and not in most states. We’ve eliminated them so only man can stop the growth of the pig population. Problem is those who profit from hunts on their property have no current motivation to reduce the population and so the pigs migrate to farmers and ranchers property and destroy crops and livestock. LKB above has an idea which has merit. Additionally, I’d suggest laws requiring fencing to keep hogs on your property if you charge a fee for hunting on it. That way the hogs can’t infest other areas. May be a tad expensive but eventually something has to be done that works to reduce the hog population. Frankly, I’d go every weekend to shoot hogs if I could find someone who’d let me do it for free.
There was a ranching family in California’s Central Valley that used to invite hunters up there to clear the pigs for them. They’d put us up in a cabin, cook for us, and overall were incredibly gracious hosts. At the end of a weekend making a good dent in the population, we’d have a big roast and split the meat with the family and take the rest home back down South. Sadly, the old man passed a while back and his kids are assholes who are trying the Texas model on… They not only charge for the “privilige” of clearing the pigs destroying their land but they expect payment per head.
I appreciate capitalism as much or more than the next guy, but I also know when I’m being fleeced. I don’t know anybody who hunts that family’s property anymore.
The more things change, the more they remain the same. 30+ years ago, an uncle in Ohio invited a shooter (at my suggestion) to assist him in clearing his farm of groundhogs and other varmints, and he greatly enjoyed watching the man (in his limited spare time) picking off critters hundreds of yards away. After several weekends and dozens or maybe hundreds of critters, he gent came to the house and told him There were hardly any left, so he was leaving for the year. My uncle said “Wait! one more weekend and you’ll be done!” But the guy said “then there wouldn’t be any to shoot next year!” and off he went.
I propose the same damn thing for cattle ranchers so the animals will stop trespassing. It went nowhere, so even if you could propose the same thing for natural wildlife, expect it to also go nowhere.
Yep, rancher and farmers screwed over the predator populations rather than fencing up and now the ranchers and farmers are bitching over the hogs rather than fencing up. I say reintroduce wolves to Texas and increase the mountain lion population, if people don’t want to live with what comes with the countryside, go back to a city or go move to the north east where its a concrete jungle.
Wolves maybe…But it takes damn near the entire pack to bring just *1* boar down. But I think Texas has more Coyote? Which are more into smaller game and scavenging carcasses of larger game. But as said before, wild boar are smart, pretty damn fast on their feet and reproduce like crazy.
Best predator against wild boar is man and his many broomsticks.
Jaguars used to range all the way into Texas. Biggest cat in the Western hemisphere.
Jaguars would definitely eat pigs. And sheep, goats, cattle, deer, etc. They won’t be back.
Mountain lions (which are rebounding in Texas after being almost extirpated) could take smaller pigs easily, but in this part of the world their diet is pretty much exclusively whitetail deer.
About the only natural predator in Texas that I have heard eat feral pigs larger than a shoat are alligators — which obviously isn’t a solution, unless your property is a swamp.
A big bear would make short work of a young hog. Does Texas have black bears?
@joseph, yes, we have bears but its mostly a southwest / mexico thing. No sightings in my county.
I do have some impressive coyotes that drop bigger **** piles than my 130Lb dog so maybe thats why I don’t see any hogs.
Deer are definitely easier to kill than hogs, even for a bear.
Hogs are not natural to the Americas, so no natural predators.
Bearing in mind that predators are generally loners, which of them is going to take on a whole sounder of hogs? Wolverine? Bear? It’s going to take an entire pack of wolves to make a “fair” fight with a sounder of hogs – and I think that I would bet on the hogs!
The predators were natural and wolves ranged from Alaska to Mexico until we decided we knew better and killed them all. We still have some big cats, bobcats are more trouble than they are worth but I do recall there being mountain lions in Texas. Sightings are rare.
I don’t think you’ll find hogs working in packs. If one goes down the rest will keep running, not stop to help.
Sounds like Texas needs more feral hog hunters.
Bacon!
There are plenty of Texas hunters who would be more than willing to go after the piggies year-round, some with all manner of high-tech wonders (thermal scopes, NV, even drones to scout / herd them).
The problem is not the lack of hunters or firepower, but that just about all the land in Texas is privately owned. As JWT has pointed out, you can hardly expect landowners (especially those with ranching operations) to just open up their property to strangers with guns. Big potential downsides, very small upside. Plus when they can charge big bucks for guided hog hunts, there’s really no reason for them to look for ways to facilitate the kind of heavy hunting pressure that would be needed to make a dent in the problem.
Now, if all landowners were legally *required* to get their hog problems under control, then that would create incentives for landowners to find ways to mitigate the potential downsides and get hunters out there to exterminate the hogs. E.g., a group of adjacent landowners in an infested area sponsor the formation of a hunting club where club members are authorized to hunt hogs on landowners’ property as long as the club kills at least X pigs / month, but the club has to obtain insurance and be financially responsible for the acts of its members. Ergo, the club has an incentive to get hunters into the field as much as possible (in order to kill enough hogs to maintain the right to hunt), as well as to make sure that potential members know (or are willing to learn) the right and permissible ways to effectively hunt the landowners’ property, and to create and enforce rules that provide peer pressure and discipline that discourages bad / stupid behavior that the club would have to pay for.
Just one idea.
I’ve heard JWT describe the liability issues as the reason he won’t allow hunters on his property. It seems to me, however, that he knows locals he can trust that could supervise shoots on his property. He could require they carry liability insurance as a prerequisite to hunt on his property.
Problem solved?
Oh no, people I know can, and do hunt my property all the time. No charge, insurance, and most of the time they use my guns. I love to bring them out. I also don’t have a pig problem.
If more Texas landowners managed their land like JWT does, the problem would be dramatically lessened. He treats feral hogs as the vermin that they are, and takes eradication seriously. Between his dogs, friends, and family, plus JWT’s mad hunting skilz, military training/combat experience, and thorough knowledge of probably every square foot of a substantial spread, any pigs that come there are highly unlikely to live long enough to reproduce.
All landowners that make money from hog hunting should be required to contain the hogs to their own property(or at least make an effort). Allowing the hogs to ruin their neighbors’ land and then setting out the feeders to bring them back for the hunters is just wrong. Forcing farmers to handle problem hogs themselves could put small farms out of business.
Anahuac is the sticks, just FYI.
The deceased was one of my coworkers neighbors. I’ve never seen hogs at his place, but I have Seen em a lot closer to Houston.
Hunting videos I have seen describe wild hogs as being skittish of humans. What drove those to attack, hunger?
That particular set of pigs didn’t see the hunting videos.
Every group of hogs I’ve ever seen has been skittish, but this isn’t the first time hogs have attacked humans.
I imagine they felt threatened, or maybe they had a taste for blood
I understand piggies mostly sleep all day and root all night. Woman was attacked in early morning before they got home to sleep.
Poor lady! I can only imagine (in fact, I’m trying not to) just how gruesome a scene it was.
I have always considered being burned alive as a bad way to go. I think being eaten alive by nasty hogs is my new number 1 way to not die…
I was sitting on the deck at the camp having a sundowner with Casey a couple of day ago when he said, “Holy shit! Look at that!” It was one of the three biggest boars I’ve seen in my life. And I’ve seen a few. Just strolled out of the woods not a hundred yards away. Casey went inside to grab the ready rifle just as the pig realized the error of his ways and beat feet. Hogs established themselves on the farm about five years ago and the population exploded. We began to trap and hunt them. Didn’t get a handle on things until we brought in dogs. I was keeping a tally but quit counting at 300. This on only 1000 acres. The dogs were the key. Hogs couldn’t stand the harassment. Moved on. Still have a few, but we stay on top of it.
“Didn’t get a handle on things until we brought in dogs. ”
Same here.
Dogs will get the job done for sure.
Probably why Texas and Florida have major Plott Hound rescues now where you only use to see the dogs in a few states like the North/South Carolina and Ohio. Now they’re popping up anywhere feral hogs call home.
Wouldn’t a resurgence of good hunting dogs and trainers be freaking wonderful?
Indeed. Particularly the trainers. So many people have no idea how to train a dog. Would be nice if that became common knowledge again.
“Casey went inside to grab the ready rifle just as the pig realized the error of his ways and beat feet.”
So what motivated them to attack, if humans make them that skittish?
Geoff, any wild animal will do anything. That’s what makes them wild. Even the domestic dog that doesn’t bite today might bite tomorrow. Wild hogs are probably the most dangerous animal we have around here. Sure, they run upon human contact. Except when they don’t.
so…is a DIY hog hunt in texas out of the picture for most….or is there a good public land access opportunity available?
DIY? Oh, hell no! You would stand a serious chance of getting shot. No Texas resident would even consider something so rude as to invade someone else’s property with a gun and start shooting, the owner would assume a criminal assault/drug war, and begin clearing the field as soon as he had called for reinforcements. Wherever you are, try to imagine beginning a “DIY hog hunt” there some evening. And there isn’t a lot of public land accessible.
buy new AR , and by new magnum revolver , go hunting. problem should be under control in no time. I like 357 magnum with full power loads. for the AR, well pick your caliber. although you can’t go hunting for them in commiefornia, since the worst feral pigs there are the commie polititions . ( yeah I know I spelled that wrong).
I hope the piglets are all donated to CAIR.
The Swine shsll rule with Snakes. ∆
When I lived in Texas, everywhere around me in CENTEX wanted to charge an arm and a leg to kill pigs. They treated the whole thing like it was attraction, rather than come kill these problem animals as fast as you can.
Here in Florida we got Gators and giant pythons to eat some hogs. The hog season is 24/7/365 no license needed.
Exactly as it should always be for pests that cause problems. A “shoot on sight” policy tends to mitigate pests quickly. Even gators and pythons learn to run and hide in a hurry if every passerby is opening fire on them. Shoot, even people are capable of learning that!
Anywhere people charge to shoot pests… they aren’t really pests, but attractions. The inevitable sheeple word convolutions notwithstanding.
Years ago wild hogs were captured, taken to N Carolina and released in the Smokey Mountains National Park.
The idiots finally figured out the hogs were destroying the park so they want them eliminated. They will not allow local hunters to shoot the hogs, they hired “professional hunters” to shoot them.
They are losing the battle at great expense.
In the nineteenth century we managed to kill bison herds off by the millions. Damn near drove them to extinction. Which proves the problem does have a solution if we just work out the details.
I’d say the quickest way to deal with this is hire hunters — lots of them. Put them on a salary + bounty, and give them legal coverage to hunt any time, anywhere, on any property. If we try to accommodate everyone’s sensibilities, we get nowhere.
Princeton, NJ figured this out a few years back.
They decided that the deer population was a problem. A big one. It was discussed to death but people complained that every solution was cruel. Bambi didn’t deserve that. So the city stopped talking about it for a few months until it slipped from people’s minds and then hired a military contracting company.
One night a bunch of guys with terrorist hunting gear (silencers, IR and NVG gear etc) and a few dump trucks show up after dark. In the morning the dump trucks leave town. This apparently happened a few nights over the course of a month or so during big time football season.
No one was the wiser, but the deer issues were suddenly gone. Eventually the city fessed up that the reason the deer problem suddenly disappeared was that they’d gotten tired of the problem and people complaining about the solution so they’d just hired a PMC to send a bunch of guys to take care of it quietly.
There was some consternation but the problem was solved and people eventually forgot about poor Bambi.
WSJ did a write up on it. The letters to the editor were priceless.
Now you have a market to keep the hog population high.
That is not at all how the Bison were destroyed. All it took was a policy of buying the hides. Make killing something profitable and many will come a running. No hiring, firing, 800 page employee handbooks, etc. All that would be needed is someone in authority in Texas to start paying to buy wild hog hides. In a few years, pigs will be tough to find, just as the bison were. And it didn’t even cost anything, because the government of the day sold the hides on to tanneries, so the whole bison irradication program cost nothing. It made enough to pay for itself, and hogs could likely do the same.
But then Texans wouldn’t be able to both complain about their terrible “problem”, and yet still enjoy its profits, simultaneously.
Federal bounties on eagles and wolves made those animals extinct in most of the lower 48…
Tell Asia wild hogs are aphrodisiacs and they’ll be on the brink of extinction in about 3 weeks.
Now, that is a fine plan. I submit it would help if shooting or trapping them is illegal, and even more so if exporting the meat/pelts was punishable by death.
I think we have a solution to China’s pork shortage…
Trap and ship to China.
$$$
Is there any disease that would be solely specific to these hogs[and not effect other wild or domestic animals]? Let the folks at Fr.Dietrich,MD develop such a bug.
Re China,we should return to them,the leaping carp,burmese pythons,palmetto bugs,emerald ash borers.
Perhaps those hog herds could be placed along the Mexican border?It would solve several problems.
It’s not south of I-10, that would make it channelview. Get a map.
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