Kansas Winning War on Feral Hogs
Associtated Press - Sun 12:28 PM 09/23/2012
Unlike other states, Kansas has succeeded in culling the herds of feral hogs tromping through its rural areas.
Unlike other states, Kansas has succeeded in culling the herds of feral hogs tromping through its rural areas.
Feral hogs have been a growing problem in the U.S., where about 5 million wild swine caused nearly $1.6 billion in damage to crops, lawns, wildlife habitat and by introducing diseases to domestic animals last year.
The Wichita Eagle reports that the hogs have expanded to about 40 states, which is about double from two decades ago.
But in Kansas the number of wild hogs is down thanks to management practices, including aerial gunning, trapping and a ban on sport hunting for feral hogs.
Curran Salter, a U.S. Department of Agriculture biologist, says there were about 2,500 feral hogs in Kansas six years ago, and now there are about 1,000.
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troy
Sunday 23 September 2012 12:45 Report this comment
Would love to help reduce the numbers. Not for sport, but just because they're yummy. The trick to avoiding it becoming a profit sport is to outlaw fees, tags, licensing, etc.
ConservativeR
Sunday 23 September 2012 13:17 Report this comment
A friend of mine had a sounder invade his farm. They did enormous damage before he was able to get rid of them.
Aurora
Sunday 23 September 2012 14:24 Report this comment
To those who don't understand why Kansas banned the sport hunting for wild hogs. They banned the sport hunting because if sport hunting was allowed, people will bring in more hogs from other states into Kansas and manage their population and make more profits, making it more difficult to reduce wild hogs' population.
troy
Sunday 23 September 2012 15:06 Report this comment
A sounder is a group of hogs. Like a flock of geese or a covey of quail. I agree with the ban on sport hunting. It should be handled similiar to "walk in hunting". Areas with a known population could be opened up by the state for public hunting thus relieving the landowner of liability and preventing the oportunity for sport hunting. No out of state hunters, no guide services, no hunting lodge that serves breakfast after they pick you up at the airport, just kansas hunters killing hogs.
Victory2012
Sunday 23 September 2012 16:47 Report this comment
I was traveling back east last week and watched a television show about a family of hog hunters. Wild hogs are apparently a huge problem for farmers and ranchers and cause millions of dollars in damage and loss. I was very surprised. I have traveled all over and spend a lot of time outdoors hunting and fishing. I have run across bears, mountain lions, bobcats, fox, badger, skunks, moose, martins, etc. . . . but never a wild hog. I agree that we definitely do nott want to do anything to encourage people to bring more fo them into the state or to raise and release them in pay-to-play operations. Thanks for the information.
Iamgonnagetu
Sunday 23 September 2012 21:58 Report this comment
Hmmm been all over evidently missed Texas. Or how about Oklahoma? Simple fix just let all hunters hunt them down at will then the problem will be solved.
Igotugood
Monday 24 September 2012 00:31 Report this comment
Hmmm.
gaspasser1959
Monday 24 September 2012 06:18 Report this comment
These hogs, both Feral and Russian Bores are a real problem in GA. There is no season, no tags/permits etc. Can hunt at night and use nightvisison. This is ow we clean them out, or attempt to do such. They bread like rabbits. We use dogs. If they are under 150 lbs, we handcuff them and drag them out. We then put in steel cages mounted on low trailer. We feed them out with cracked corn to get the wild taste out. They then taste like a regular hog. If you really wanna know how these rednecks make their living: Those guaranteed hunts in magazines you see; Well those rednecks will charge you $1000 and plant the cages before the hunting parties arrive. They may have 8 groups showing up at different times on a saturday night. Run the dogs for 20 min and make $1000 off each party. How do I know this? I am from GA and my family runs hunts.