McLain said feral hogs present potential for diseases to spread to humans, pets and livestock and that he hopes the message that hunting is not an effective method for eliminating feral hog populations is starting to catch on.
“For over 20 years, unregulated take of feral hogs was allowed in Missouri, during which time our feral hog population expanded from a few counties to over 30 counties,” he said.
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My god, the analytical portion of my brain just attempted to commit seppuku after realizing that a living, thinking (allegedly) human had to be responsible for making those statements. There are so many things wrong with the logic presented there.
1st: No one, and I mean no one is saying that hunting ALONE will cure the hog problem. Which conversely, only an idiot would proclaim that hunting alone isn't solving the hog problem.
2nd: Any statements regarding the effectiveness of hunting are entirely useless without any information regarding how many people are participating in hog hunting in Missouri, much less how much land is open to hunting or even being actively hunted.
3rd: Any discussion of an alternative program to hunting that also doesn't discuss how much land is open to use of that method, and actively using that method, is equally useless. You cold have the ultimate hog solution, but if it can only be deployed in 1% of the state, it's useless.
4th: Even though hunting alone can not eliminate the hog problem, eliminating the ability to shoot hogs on sight sure as heck won't help the problem either. Hogs travel a long distance. If you wait from the time a hog is spotted until someone can come out and set up traps, the hogs are in the next county.
5th: Assuming that at some point in the last 20 years, hogs have been trapped in Missouri, that gentlemen's logic also makes an excellent example that trapping isn't a viable solution... assuming that is, anyone actually gave credence to his logic.
6th: See point 1 again for emphasis.
Then again, you are quoting an article that brags about eliminating 6500 hogs. Meanwhile, here, 34,000 hogs were killed from helicopters alone last year. Good job Missouri, you managed to spend tax dollars to eliminate 1/5 of what we got people to actually pay to do. So... Government action, 1/5 as effective as Capitalism.
The article also contains this bit of idiocy:
" He said more landowners are starting to understand, and are seeing, that hunting feral hogs pushes them onto neighboring property, which causes problems for their neighbors. When neighboring landowners try to control feral hogs through hunting, the hogs simply travel back and forth between the properties, escape and cause more damage. "
Lol. Seriously. It's hilarious to see a state wildlife agency that has absolutely zero clue. Hogs already do that. Hogs naturally roam huge areas. They are traveling onto your neighbors property because that is what they do. Hogs will have a home range that is more than a thousand acres.
