Pigs and Poison

[Ralph]

#117740

Hey guys, I live in Texas and even way up here in the panhandle wild hogs aka ******pigs are a real pain but I do not approve of this method of decreasing their numbers

https://www.yahoo.com/news/texas-feral-pigs-time-hog-153314975.html

I’m old enough to remember the old 1040 poisoning of predators and it’s disgusting what else dies from poisoning besides the intended victims.

My aunt and uncle used to have a 64,000 acre sheep and cattle ranch east of Aguilar, CO when I was a lad. Sheep and coyotes are not a good combo to ranchers.

I can remember the critters laying around dead that had eaten off the carcass of other animals that were poisoned. I’m talking birds (hawks and eagles are the ones stuck mostly in my memory), smaller mammals (badgers and such), etc.

They also lost several dogs that got into the stuff.

My thinking is what are they going to use to distribute the poison that deer and cattle won’t get into?  How could an amount of poison large enough to be the demise of a hog not also be lethal to deer especially? Hogs be pretty (actually, ugly) dang big heavy critters.

Have we not learned that for every action there’s a reaction?  Animal specific poison?? BS…

Maybe there’s more to this than what I read and understood but my experience growing up with the poisoning of predators and vermin was not too good of a deal.

Me thinkin’,

Ralph.

 

 

[Stephen Graf]

#118004

As the article states, its the same toxin used in rat poison.  There have been many studies done that show that rats and mice that have eaten the poison then get eaten by foxes, bobcats, mountain lions, etc.  Those predators are then killed.

The manufacturer’s claim that it will only affect pigs is laughable.

But then, there is no such thing as climate change and vaccine’s are a hoax.  So what do I know?

[James Harvey]

#119461

It does seem problematic fellas. You’d like to think that whoever approved it considered the flow on effects and maybe the environmental cost of letting the pigs alone is worse (e.g. down here one of their big points of environmental damage is eating wetland birds eggs) so the cost of 2nd and 3rd order poison effects is still acceptable on balance.

But who knows?

[Riverwolf]

#120119

Bad idea …. . For reasons stated above and many others.

Poison is just that “Poison” and cares not whom, what , nor how it becomes injected  .  It will do its dirty deed regardless ……….

D.N.R..,farmers , Ranchers , Hunters, Trappers need to work together and this “problem” can be brought under control . I know tons of people that would love to hunt hogs in Texas ….but charging people to help you control a issue of damage on your Ranch/Farm ?   Just inviting hunters to hunt will generate revenue to the area …food -camping-motels-restaurant’s , etc….  

[Stephen Graf]

#120323

Spot-on!  If pigs were that big a problem, they could make it more inviting for hunters.

The pig problem is well under control in the east.  In fact, its hard to find a pig in a lot of the public hunting areas.  This was done with hunting, not poison.

 

[Ralph]

#120325

Really, there’s a whole bunch of us here that feel the same.

Some of the problem is if I have 500 acres and I hunt or let you hunt pigs, the guys around me with their huge properties full of pigs don’t want to see the population reduced because of the dollars that come from pig hunting. A good bit of that is out of state hunters coming in to hunt pigs

If I hear someone bitching about pigs tearing up stuff, I ask if I can hunt, they reply “sure, for $150/200 a day” , it bothers me not to tell them where their pigs can root.

And right poison is poison.

Here in Amarillo a couple of months ago some “controlled” poison/pesticide was spread under and around a families trailer for rodent control.

It started smelling so in attempt to be rid of the odor the dad tried to wash the substance away. He didn’t know, most of us probably wouldn’t, but water turn that stuff into a highly toxic gas.

It killed four of his children and nearly his wife.

Poison is poison and is easily and often abused.

[Ralph]

#123650

Fuel to the fire heh?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/federal-cyanide-trap-injures-eastern-idaho-boy-kills-dog/ar-BByhTwf?li=BBnbfcL

[Stephen Graf]

#123651

Wow, I thought those things were made illegal back in the ’70’s.  Guess not.  I hope the ranchers are happy.

[William Warren]

#123921

To a farmer or rancher it is just business. One way to increase capital gains is to reduce waste and to them everything that any wild animal eats is waste. They buy the seed and fertilizer and fuel to grow a crop or enhance their pastures only to have deer or in this case hogs destroy a portion of it. So their solution is reduce the number of the offending animal. They also do not want the hassle of bringing in hunters which may not be effective enough to make a difference. Even depredation hunts where animals are systematically killed fail to totally eliminate enough animals for long.  I know hunters in my area that say they have participated in these night shoots for deer under the farmers permit and know that as many as 100 deer were killed and they keep showing up even after that to the same soybean field.  This also happens with hogs wherever they exist. It does not surprise me that farmers and ranchers want to use poison. I don’t agree with it and I think we already know where this will go in the end like has already been mentioned. Our national symbol the eagle was once endangered because of DDT the wonder cure for all of agricultures problems in the 50’s and 60’s. Many other animals and people were victim to this chemical before it was banned in America. So, I can’t help thinking, here we go again now, just because they have the politics in their favor now.  The fact is that agriculture has always lost some of its yield to nature since agriculture began. So if they could effectively control this threat, what will the cost really be? And what will they do next when they are not making enough money in return for their efforts and they can’t blame it on wildlife anymore?

[David Becker]

#123931

That’s awful.

Sounds like Texas really needs some cougars. They love bacon.

 

[Ralph]

#123942

Got mountain lions?  How about sending you a couple hundred thousand pigs to feed’em?

[David Becker]

#123994

That right there was taken about 75 yards from the house. I’ve got a couple dozen more like it. Generally we cut cougar sign or get a picture two or three times a year. They pass through and then move on. It’s sort of exciting and we like it, with an appropriate amount of caution.
This year the heavy snow drove the deer down out of the mountains and the kitty followed and moved in. My first clue was that my German Shepherd was on high alert every time we went outside. We got sign every day or two days and even found an et up deer about a 100 yards from the house.

Eventually things melted a little and we stopped seeing sign, but it was an interesting month or so.

I was going to suggest some of the cats move to Texas, since we’ve got plenty here. I’ll try to get the word out…

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