Article

http://www.statesman.com/news/controvers...nXnZC6cFOGwGTO/

Wow! It looks like some people's golden goose was getting threatened.

How so? Who's?

I think that Responsible Individuals all across the State realized the danger of this chemical that had the potential to wreak havoc on the Enviroment, and even endanger human life, and spoke out against it.

No more, no less!

The 'monkey business' and behind the scenes deals were what got it rushed into it's short-lived legality to begin with.

The amount of the active agent is minuscule and at those levels not even poisonous to rats unless ingested for many days. The issue is and continues to be hogs are a profitable problem for some. People brought the hogs to Texas. People brought the hogs from Texas to other states for sporting purposes. The hogs are destructive to native species and farming. This causes money to be spent on "The Problem".

Killing the hogs down to a negligible population would negatively impact that money flow. Some of the golden goose resides within the game and fish department.

So, you are OK with the possibility of animals ingesting this poison, traveling to adjoining properties and being killed for human consumption by unsuspecting individuals?

I am not.

Is the goal control or eradication?

I don't eat nothing that eats hogs. It's rat bait most if not all of us have put in under or around our houses.

So you don't eat wild pigs? I do and know tons of others who do.

Was the problem that it definitely was harmful to people/animals that ate pigs that had ingested the bait or was there something else?

I didn't see any hog control companies complaining. I did see lots of hog hunters doing so.

Heck, if it ever hits the market in a certified safe form, I will get certified to administer it. There will be a market, but by no means will all landowners spend the money on it. There will always be hogs.

Granted much of my understanding of the product is from information provided by the manufacturer in the Texas ag study. Within 24hrs the fat tissue concentrates a die in the bait that turns it dark blue (edited part- bright blue not dark blue) so people know the animal has ingested the poison and can choose whether or not to consume it. Warfarin is the active ingredient. Check out their information on the product if you are interested in the science behind it.
Kaput Feral Hog Bait

This is the mindset I had anticipated from you. You seem not just motivated by your business and see the larger picture of the burden placed on small farmers by the infestation of hogs.

Thanks for the kind words!

I truly hate hogs. And I honestly feel for the farmers and other landowners.

I attended a wild pig conference a couple of months ago. It was the week after the TX story broke. The owner of the company was there to speak and answer questions. I could tell then that the process had progressed way to fast. He was being hammered from many directions.

At some point someone is going to crack the code with some type of poison or birth control. You can bet it will be expensive. Some will elect to buy it and many won't. Just like good hog traps. Some will buy them and some won't.

Similar to good fences......

Some farmers choose to install them, and some don't.

It seems that they want to portray an image of Rural Conservatism until it comes to Crop Damage. Then, many want all the Govt Assistance and Funding they can get.

But, you guys are correct.

This current craze of night vision and shooting hogs with military style weapons has definitely worked to increase the Value of hogs.

If you do not believe it, try to join a Club to kill hogs!

Just as it hasn't put raccoons on the endangered species act list aerial disbursed birth control won't completely remove the hogs. Poisons won't either. They are just more tools for lowering the negative impact to a financially palatable level. I watched the video on the proper utilization of the hog bait. It will not be cheap to get a certified technician on site 2 times in 6 weeks then back every 1 to 5 days for 3 weeks then back every 5 days for the remainder of the baiting session. That and proper carcass handling along with keeping life stock out of that area for I believe 90 days will not be for everyone.

However, I wouldn't put it past a state to implement these types of things on WMA's or the FEDS in NF's and/or COE lands. I am not pro or con on the poison solution. I do think the vendor has put a lot of time and effort and of course money into developing the product. It's just the knee jerk reaction from the non Ag groups makes me question their reasoning and motives. In the past, it seemed the state level agriculture departments trumped the game and fish departments. They generally worked together but the Ag guys usually got their way. I guess because of food production being a bigger tax paying business. Maybe that isn't so anymore.

I wish some company would come up with a bait of some kind that was infected with something like parvo or distemper that would lead to the deaths of most of the coyotes.

I don't know of an aerial program to administer birth control to raccoons. I do know of the Oral Rabies Vaccine program that drops an oral rabies vaccine in a fish meal packet. It is successful where complete coverage is obtained. It's job is vaccinate against the virus not eliminate the host.

It is not applied to the entire area where raccoon rabies is prevalent, just along the western border of the zone.

Probably anything that hit the yotes would hit a family dog too so there would be public backlash. That and the sponge thing is seriously against the rules for being inhumane.

I remember reading a paper about birth control by aerial disbursement as a means to control rabies as well some time ago. Something about it wouldn't leave population density voids in the environment. This no new infected raccoons moving into an area. I guess it never came to be.