Archive for Sunday, February 22, 2009

Efforts to kill feral hogs make steady progress

February 22, 2009


— A combined state and federal effort to eradicate feral hogs from south-central and eastern Kansas is steadily making progress, those who hunt the animals say.

The hogs, which cause thousands of dollars in damage to pastures and crops, are hunted by helicopter and on the ground under a program conducted by the Kansas Animal Health Department and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The animals also are trapped during the year.

The program began in 2006 and has about 250 cooperating private landowners, who own about 316,000 acres. Another 224,000 acres of public land are part of the hunt.

Chad Richardson, a USDA wildlife biologist from Milford, estimated that a couple of years ago, Kansas had nearly 2,000 hogs causing $200,000 to $300,000 damage. They have the potential to spread diseases like brucellosis to livestock, and pseudorabies to domestic hogs.

But a state veterinarian, Steve Wilterding, of Tribune, said that in the past four years, no feral hogs have tested positive for any diseases.

Between 1995 and 2000, Richardson helped eliminate 378 hogs from Fort Riley. The animals have not returned to the area. In 2006, Kansas Livestock Commissioner George Teagarden told him the feral hog population was growing in parts of eastern and southern Kansas.

Teagarden also was working to get the state to ban sport hog hunting, which he hoped would remove the incentive for people to release the hogs into the wild.

A state law passed in 1995 made it unlawful to release or possess feral swine, Teagarden said, but the problem continued to grow. Richardson said he believes most of the hogs are brought in and released by those who want to make hog hunting a sport in the state.

They have cost the state thousands of dollars. Teagarden said the first three years of the program have cost about $450,000. And he’s not sure how much funding he’ll get this year because of the state’s tight budget.

State law allows landowners, or a legal tenant, to kill feral hogs. An outside eradication company can be used if the landowner gets a permit through Teagarden’s office.

Richardson said state-approved hunters are not seeing as many hogs as they have in the past. Typically, the agency kills an average of 500 hogs a year. This year, a few were shot around Clinton Lake near Lawrence.


wtarush 5 years, 10 months ago

Teagarden is full of HOG S#!+. Right before he pushed that stupid law making it unlawful to hunt the "non-game" feral hogs here in Kansas I snared one over at Clinton Lake. It was a boar and couldn't have been better than first generation off the farm. I have shot countless hogs in Texas and Oklahoma that are truly "feral" (Long haired with tusks and a mean streak a mile long). If this hog was released by some non law-abiding hunter he stole it from his brother-in-law's pig farm to do so. The "hunter release" theory is a doozy, but why doesn't Teagarden fess up to the true reason he pushed the law through... he was tired of the KDWP passing the buck (all the hunters calling to question regulations concerning hog hunting in KS) because feral hogs fall under agricultural jurisdiction. The hunter release theory is the biggest crock to make it through our state gov't... From a not-so-proud Kansan.

gr 5 years, 10 months ago

"Typically, the agency kills an average of 500 hogs a year."

I wonder if they eat them all or if not, if someone will want to tie the agency to a tree and smear them with honey.

I've heard them say feral hogs develop either immediately or in one or two generations. I've never understood how genetics can change so quickly just based on whether they are in front of the barn or behind it rather than taking millions of years.

LadyJ 4 years, 8 months ago

I don't have an answer for you, but I'll help you keep it up.

LadyJ 4 years, 8 months ago

I will certainly be more careful in the future. Thanks. I have to admit it took a bit for me to figure out what you were talking about. And to think it got by the LJW censor program.

rbwaa 4 years, 8 months ago

besides, dogs and cats become feral in their own lifetimes... feral: 1: savage, 2: wild, 3: having escaped from domestication and become wild [The Merriam-Webster Dictionary]

georgiahawk 4 years, 8 months ago

I thought this was a story about far right Republicans! My bad!

bearded_gnome 4 years, 8 months ago

Be careful what you ask for!!!

that derned helichopper yer lookin fer mite jes have a "behavior control technician" aboard!

"breed like hogs" well, I guessso!

"black Jack Pershing?" WTH?

yes, LadyJ, I imagine a few facepalms occurred down at the award-winning ljworld hq. but it was funny.

Deja Coffin 4 years, 8 months ago

So can you eat feral hog? Just wondering if that's why people would hunt them other then population control.

RoeDapple 4 years, 8 months ago

Yes Deja they are quite edible. Wild game though is almost always infested with parasites so must be cooked thoroughly to prevent transfer. Also, meat taste is affected by diet, so don't expect wild pig to taste like what you buy at the local meat counter. (Some would say it's better!)

Deja Coffin 4 years, 8 months ago

Roe, we had a pig butchered in the past and even that tasted completely different then the pork you get in the store. I guess I was too used to the hormones in store bought pork to appreciate it. We have cows butchered and I do like that but then again I don't really like farm fresh eggs or chicken. I really think it's just a mental thing with me. I'm the type that enjoys deer meat chili until someone tells me it's deer meat. I hate it and try to be better at it but it's hard.

LadyJ 4 years, 8 months ago

I see references to 1614 but no comment, did he get disappeareded?

LadyJ 4 years, 8 months ago

Nope, guess not. Checked over on Suggest Removal blog and he's still there.

RoeDapple 4 years, 8 months ago

My guess is, like cyber knight, the next siting will be under another identity. Just a guess . . . . . of course. . .


pooter 4 years, 8 months ago

I don't know about feral hogs but there was a farmer near here that used to have a 3 legged, super special hog.

And if you were to ask the farmer who owned the hog why it only had 3 legs the farmer was always quick to tell anyone who'd listen that what made the hog so special was how it had awakened the whole family one night squealing when their house had caught fire, saving them from a most certain death.

Now after hearing this much of the story you thought the hog must have lost his leg in the fire you'd be wrong.

Fact is, you just don't eat a super special hog like that all at once.


riverdrifter 4 years, 8 months ago

Texas has hundreds of thousands of feral hogs and wishes they didn't. Very destructive critters to fields, pastures & yards. Hog hunts are really cheap as a result. We went on a one day hunt on a ranch and when we got done they told us we had drawn another day's hunt. We found out later that most everybody drew a "free" hunt -especially if you were shooting a lot of hogs. BTW, anything goes when hunting hogs in Texas. Day, night, rifle, shotgun, bow, crossbow, spears, dogs, baiting, spotlighting, no bag limit, anything. Just "git some hogs".

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