Set on good location they are very effective. Unattended they can be indiscriminate killers just like box style hog traps, limb lines, trot lines and crab traps. Yet there are hundreds of each left unattended each year. I know of instances where 330 conibears were set on the bank at crawl overs and have caught a bobcat, a pig and an alligator.

Im not proposing wide spread use of hog snares. But I believe tightly controlled and permitted they have a place in the hog control equation. You wont find a better bang for your buck at a couple of dollars each.

Also, I heard the rumor that local GW can no longer write depredation permits, they have to go through the district biologist.