That is so mean. Those poor innocent little pigs. What did they ever do to that mean man in the helicopter with that evil assault rifle. That is torture, plane and simply. There should be a law.



Where do I go to sign up for pig shooting.

Damn.....That's a pile of bacon.........They just sausage 'em up after running them that hard?

Flynengr

Frankly, I am not a friend of pigs. I spent too much time carrying slop and watching the greed and waste of pigs and enjoyed the time of harvest. There is much damage to land and crops from the over release of pigs . If i dislike any animal it would be pigs. They also fed me . I never wasted them.

I too have seen the choppers kill. They too are pigs full of greed and waste. That is not hunting. That is killing.

Control is important, hunting is our right. It you kill to kill you are not much different from a pig.

GR

Obviously, they are trying to eradicate feral pigs, but I disagree with the tactics. From an eradication point of view, shooting them from a helicopter is quite efficient. It was fast, and it was effective.

From a hunting point of view, there are a number of problems. It is too difficult to reliably obtain good shot placement. There are several examples in the video where the gunner missed, or the animal was obviously wounded but not killed. I'm guessing many more that tumbled when hit didn't die right away. So, their eradication program wasn't humane, and it wasted good meat. I think they could have just asked for hunters to come shoot a free pig and they could have saved the considerable expense of the fuel burn on that bird. Hell, they could sell tags. I'd *pay* 20 bucks to a farmer for the privilege of bagging one!

I wonder if any of the shell casings went through the main or tail rotor

Also, I think the Camo outfits are a bit much...the helicopter kind of gives them away

Aw man, a little too realistic.

That's all we need now is the animal activist's to get a hold of video's like this. I've got some friends that work for the Dept of Ag. and would hate to see them loose there job because of stuff like this getting too much public attention.

But anyway.......them pigs can run pretty damn fast. And I know they are a huge problem some parts of the country.

I wanna go!!! Guys, this is not hunting...it is an eradication!!! It is something that has to be done at times, don't get to sentimental about it. I am an avid hunter and definitely don't see this as any type of hunting. I have been involved in eradication projects and if you had seen some of the areas that non-digenous species can do to an area you may understand why they have to go to drastic measures sometimes. I have hunted feral pigs in Gaum and in Hawaii. There were areas in Gaum that are totally devoid of vegetation below the waist due to feral hogs destroying everything. The little buggers reproduce like rats. Was a blast stalking pigs with a bow in the jungle. Even got a few giant lizards.
The camo in the helicopter is a little much though. LOL
WW

Wow! Put me in the category of folks who'd pay good money to do this! As far as the animal rights folks are concerned - did you see how many of those buggers there were? Not only eating OUR food supply, but that of native species. I for one never knew the problem was this big.

Looks like more fun than shoot'n prairie dogs! I couldn't imagine having Farrel hogs running around the farm like that. A guy wouldn't want to walk across the pasture w/o a dog and pistol out of fear of bein' eaten.

This pig program, and the wild horse control program are huge wastes of taxpayer money. I think they should open up a season on "out of control" animals and let private hunters harvest them. As some have pointed out, the enthusiasts would pay to hunt.

tom

10-4 on the eradicaton. Only problem is they haven't eradicated after a lot of shootin'.
I didn't look at this particular video but I believe that this was probably in the rice/pasture country of south Texas. There are a few ag pilots down there that also do this after they are done spraying. The main reason they do it this way instead of asking "free hunters" to do so is that they would need an ass load of hunters trampling all over the farms to kill the same amount of pigs. You have to rmember that most of the period of growing rice is spent with the field flooded with a foot or more of water so it makes access limited and a pain. It's also hard to see a three foot tall hog runnung through four feet of rice from the ground. The growers don't want the rice destroyed in the first place, the hogs do a lot of that on their own let alone a bunch of guys on foot and four wheelers. Rice is kinda fragile to trampling and there aren't many natural predators to keep hogs in check in that part of the world. This began from domestic hogs escaping years ago, when you see what a rice field looks like from the air after a family of hogs has eaten their way through it it's farly alarming.
This used to be done out of airplanes but they actually had to petition to change the law so that helicopter's could be used, shooting hogs was hard out of an airplane. They operate under a "depredator permit". It requires a list of pilots and aircraft registration numbers to be used. During a shoot they must also have a Landowner's Authorization Form for each individual field to be treated for hog infestation. Texas Fish and Game can ask to see these forms and they are kept track of to control the hunting.
This is no diferent than the USDA-APHIS coyote hunting program so let's not get all judgemental. Plenty of coyotes are killed every year out of Cubs and I bet even they get grazed occasionally too.
It's not pretty, it's solving a problem. I believe at this time this is NOT a government program and the growers pay for the helicopter not taxpayers but I'll check on that.
I personally would enjoy the flying more than the shooting.

flynengr wrote:Damn.....That's a pile of bacon.........They just sausage 'em up after running them that hard?

Flynengr

I hear they are pretty rank. I wonder if anyone eats feral hogs?

58Skylane wrote:That's all we need now is the animal activist's to get a hold of video's like this. I've got some friends that work for the Dept of Ag. and would hate to see them loose there job because of stuff like this getting too much public attention.

But anyway.......them pigs can run pretty damn fast. And I know they are a huge problem some parts of the country.

Wow .........I found some facts about feral hogs.

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/nuisance/feral_hogs/

http://www.hpj.com/archives/2009/jan09/jan26/FeralhogpopulationinTexascl.cfm

Damn, them suckers a very distructive. And like George said, breed like a motha f@#%*. I strongly believe these species and a other distructive species (especially non-native) should be hunted and eraticated but with as little public attention as possible (especially if any of our government agencies are involved, like the USDA). But, I know that is almost impossible these days with the internet.

tcj wrote:

flynengr wrote:Damn.....That's a pile of bacon.........They just sausage 'em up after running them that hard?

Flynengr

I hear they are pretty rank. I wonder if anyone eats feral hogs?

It looks like the guy on the right does.

I see nothing but productive fun.

tcj wrote:

flynengr wrote:
Damn.....That's a pile of bacon.........They just sausage 'em up after running them that hard?

Flynengr

I hear they are pretty rank. I wonder if anyone eats feral hogs?

Pigs are popular to hunt here in Northern CA; they are not nearly the menace they are in TX it seems. Most are found in our oak woodlands, chaparral country and rolling hills....The snow keeps them out of the mountains and most of the productive farmland doesn't have any cover for them. They still can destroy foothill orchards and gardens, though.

Some of our pigs are excellent eating and some are awful. Generally speaking the smaller the animal and the calmer they are when they expire, the better eating they are. If you are looking for meat, it's best to drop a little one when they are foraging along and don't even know you are there.

Flynengr

tcj wrote:

flynengr wrote:Damn.....That's a pile of bacon.........They just sausage 'em up after running them that hard?

Flynengr

I hear they are pretty rank. I wonder if anyone eats feral hogs?

Absolutely! Good meat. And it's true what was said above about the farms. A lot of rice farms around here and those hogs do a ton of damage. I went hunting last week and while looking for the "trophy buck" that I didn't get or even see I was prepared to blast at any hog that came into range. The meat wouldn't have been wasted.

BTW - That's a Photochopped pic.

I do not worry about the clean shot. No worst than stepping on a magot and half killing it. It is also ok to do it if it is for saving the turtles. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZrFIcWz ... re=related

Tom

I have killed a couple wild boar on hunts in TN several years ago and was not too impressed with their taste. Maybe the feral pig might be better. From what I have read on a Ag forum that I frequent, they are a real economic problem for some farms in part of Texas, as well as other areas of the country. It also makes sense about being selective on who they let hunt. Yes, it would be fun, but there would have to be ground rules.

I would like to invite those guys in the helicoptor up here to knock off a few wolves, as their population seems to be on the rise, causing damage to the deer and moose herd. Steve