Got a buddy that has a good bit of land and he has a lot of hogs. He gets pics and kills a bunch of hogs whose ears are hanging off and or ripped off. He says it is from where catch dogs had the hogs and then the hunters let them go. Does this sound right? Why would anyone let the hog go?

Because they probably don't have to pay for all the trouble the hogs can cause.

Up till recently it was common practice to castrate boars and turn them back loose so the meat is better quality. I use to hunt a place in Stateline MS that the landowner would get pissed if you killed a boar hog instead of barring him.

The other option is someone with a bunch of gritty culls is doing a lot hog running and chewing then quitting and not catching many hogs.

There is a landowner in Frankville that traps hogs on his place and kills the sows but Barr’s the boars and cuts their ears off.

Most landowners in south Alabama don’t care about hogs. 90% of the complaining about hogs is from deer hunters that insist on hunting a big corn pile or going off deer cam pics of a corn pile and saying all the deer left the property.

Farmers actually have problems with hogs but that problem could be fixed by fencing.

i doubt anyone's letting them go, especially if he has alot of hogs. Back in the day, folks use to do as bayed up described. But I don't think they do that anymore. I'd say that the dogs where too gritty and and they just got pulled off and pigs got away. Alot of times we catch them and kill them and the ears are still intact, just a little chewed.
We hunt alot of properties and the farmers wont results.

Also pigs will chew on each other, nasty animals!

If you can build an effective hog fence, you might become the most popular man in the world.
If you can do it for less than $10 a foot, you'll be the busiest man in the world.

I happen to know where several effective hog fences are. I can’t give you a price on what they cost but if farmers are losing what they say they are they would pay for them self very quickly.

I kill a bunch of hogs in high fences, electric fences, hog wire fences, etc.....

I know where a 8.5 acre corn field is with rooting around the fence but no hogs on the inside......
I know where a 80 acre hog pen is with net wire and one strand of electric fence around the bottom that has held the same 2 wild boar hogs for the last 4-5 years......

I have caught several hogs inside of a fence also but they were not built with the intention of keeping hogs out. If you can fence one in you can dang sure fence them out.

Why would someone cut the hogs ears off and then let them go?

He does it because it makes it harder to catch with dogs because the catch dog normally goes for the ear and so he can identify that it’s been castrated when it comes out in a green patch in deer season. He is the type of person that gets mad if you kill one of “HIS” hogs. I don’t hunt close to him (about 4 miles as a crow flies) but every now and then I will either get a picture of or catch one that he has doctored up.

Field fence will keep hogs out, especially if you have a single strand of electric fence at the bottom. I don't think they will work near as hard to get in as they will to get out. But maintaining the fence is where it gets tricky. Looked at a chufa plot yesterday that is fenced and a large dead pine fell across the fence. Hogs haven't found it so far but will given enough time.

If I had to fence a large field to keep hogs out, I'd use a well-grounded high tensile electric fence . The small diameter stuff is too easy to break if they run into it. Not sure how the poly wire holds up but should be better than standard wire. High tensile is about $100 for 4000 feet.

also makes it more dangerous for the dogs. I saw a man take a severe curb stomping over cutting ears many, many years ago.

We spend a considerable amount of time just maintaining a barb wire fence around a hundred acres of pasture. I'd hate to think how much work a hog fence would require.
It's smarter and easier to kill every hog that gives you a shot.
I know several farmers who'd be likely to to shoot YOU if they found out you let one loose.

Shooting every hog you see doesn’t make a dent in the population. Everyone wants a quick and easy fix but it doesn’t work like that.

Option A- Do nothing and complain.

Option B- Build a fence and maintain it. Hunt and trap every chance you get.

Option C- Hunt them and trap them and when you can’t be there let someone else do it.

Option D- Use poison and run the risk of killing non target species or people.

Their isn’t a quick fix. It takes work or money no matter how you do it. Hence why landowners don’t care unless they are trying to farm on the property.

All of those options are viable.
My point was that anyone who doesn't kill every hog he can should be flogged.
Anyone who intentionally turns one loose should be hanged.

Don't they usually cut tails off too.

Most people that Barred hogs removed the tail or marked ears. Very few people actually cut the ears completely off

they cut the ears off so a catch dog can't grab em there

I just don't understand a farmer having to fence off a 40...80 or 100ac peanut field? Tie that field in with all his others...could be talking thousands of acres. Jeebus, that's a helluva expense he'd have to undertake...to maybe keep pigs out. And yes they're already losing money...so, why should they have to throw more at a losing cause? Just quit planting peanuts and when peanut butter gets outrageous enough in price, maybe then pigs will go on the most wanted list.

I don’t know if you are aware, but pigs are already on the most wanted list. They are pushing to legalize poison. The problem is that most landowners don’t care enough to put forth the effort to work on the problem or to let someone else work on them. The only way to ensure that hogs don’t get in the crops is to fence the fields or not plant where hogs are a problem.

A landowner can kill 500 hogs a year off his property but if the surrounding landowners have hogs and aren’t doing anything it’s a losing battle