Re: Wild pigs marching into Virginia
Bird Dog wrote:
Neill I believe the article greatly exagerates the "hunter release" of pigs. ....
I will go so far as call BS on the hog problem.
I have successfully hunted hogs in Florida, Tennessee, and Oklahoma. I have hunted
for hogs in several other states.
Any time our government tells us there is a problem (a problem that I can help them with) then they refuse to tell me where it is, well they can just shut the hog up!
I do not live far from Bland county, have relatives there, and have searched for hogs there. Rumor has it they are on National Forest as well as private land.
I have first hand knowledge of some hogs that appeared on NF land in Pulaski County. I know the fellow that filmed them then asked the Forest Service for permission to hunt them.
They said, "No!" and the hogs were gone within a few days!
The government has a very effective shoot, trap, and poison program.
I hunted an area in Tennessee where their game department was advertising for help from local sportsmen to "Shoot every hog you see".
My partner and I spent a week hunting hard. Neither of us are city boys. I spent 35 years hunting in Alaska and my partner spent his entire life hunting SW Virginia. We never even found a fresh track.
We did hear stories, from nearly every local we met, of government trappers working the area. We talked to two check stations and only one fellow even remembered ever checking in a hog. And that was several years ago.
I do believe they can be a problem. I also believe they can take over an area in a short period of time if not held in check.
If the state really had a problem, I cannot believe they would not organize a hunt to control their population, like they do for deer. Or put a bounty on their heads.
Or at least tell me where the hogs live!
If the hogs are on private land and the land owners want it kept a secret and they refuse to let hunters on their land, then they have a problem, not the state and certainly not me.
If and when the hogs leave private land, give me a call, I'll decide then if I want to believe it.
If I sound skeptical...its because I am. I have been lied to before.