Big thanks to Holly, the NorCal Cazadora for sending me this link from the New York Times, High Above The Hog.
I spotted the article in my Google searches, but thought it was just another negative blast about Texas permitting hog shooting from helicopters. There are a bunch of those rolling out all of a sudden, as the new law (allowing commercial outfitters to sell “hog hunts” from helicopters) will come into effect tomorrow. As you might imagine, the whole idea of shooting animals from helicopters as “sport” is rubbing folks the wrong way… hunters and non-hunters alike.
At any rate, after Holly sent me the link, I decided to give the article a second chance.
Turns out, it wasn’t a diatribe against helicopter-based hog shooting, or fair chase, or anything that I expected. In fact, it was a very reasonable column. In it, the author, Mark Essig, does briefly touch on the idea of eradication from helicopters (and to his credit, he NEVER calls it “hunting”). He gets the rationale behind it, but doesn’t really think it’s going to be effective in the long run. There’s a bigger problem, he suggests, and simple management tactics aren’t going to resolve it.
The bigger problem Essig calls out is the transport and release of wild or feral hogs into new areas by hunters. I’ve written about this myself, several times, and agree that it’s a huge issue. When one looks at the phenomenally rapid distribution of hogs across the US, it’s not rocket science to figure out that the cause isn’t some sudden explosion of fecundity and a pioneering spirit amongst feral hogs. There’s got to be another cause for the population explosion… and that cause is hunters trying to create their own little hunting paradise by releasing swine in uncontrolled environments.
I’ve had plenty to say about this in the past, so I won’t rehash what I wrote before (just click on the category Feral Pigs to see a listing of related posts). However, I will share part of the conclusion of Essig’s column.
Most important, we must deal with the hunters who are helping pigs spread. Laws on the transportation and release of hogs should be toughened so that the penalties reflect the damage done. A new North Carolina law, to go into effect Oct. 1, moves in the right direction by setting the penalty for unapproved transport at up to $5,000 per hog.
Ethical hunters, and their skills not with guns but with words, can help. They must spread the word — through outdoor magazines and in conversations at hunt clubs and gun shops — that helping hogs expand their range is bad for our parks, our farmers and our wildlife.
I think he’s onto something here.
I agree with you. I enjoy hog hunting but there are places where they don’t belong and the damge the do when released into these areas is astounding. There have been reports of wild hogs here in North Dakota and they had to be released hogs. You know more about this than I do but could they survive the ND winters? Even native species sometimes have a hard time.
glg