Charles, remember that same law gives land owners a right to shoot a dog that Is baying a hog on his property.
you are 100% right, but the law also says the property to game animal is on at that specific time, belong to the paticular time. if the animal has an ear tag or hip brand, then do what you can to find the rightfull owner with in a proper amount of time, say 1-3 months.
i see and understand both t-bob and ba-iv's point of veiw, but again i hunt 99% public property so if the animal is on public property then it is free for the takings. if there is a cattle ranch or hog farm near by then honest thing to do is gather the dogs up, makr location on gps, tie the animal to a tree if you can not get the animal out by hand, go see the rancher and ask him if it is his/her animal. t-bob, what is the time line on when an animal becomes feral? if the animal has been out of its ranging land long enough to look like its feral, then the owner has givin up on find it. as far as traditonal point of view, just for yaws sake, i will find the site and carry a copy of all the registered ear marks and brands when i hunt just to make sure i dont catch an animal who has either marked it and let it go in hopes of catching it again or stray cattle roaming the woods. i dont mark animals, but if it was common and still required for identifing animals for means of free grazing, then i would respect it, but this is the 21st century, the majority of all ranchers dont free graze their cattle on public property. you want to mark your caught wild hogs, then ok, but dont get your nickers in a knot if some else catches and keeps it. till the law is reverted back 80-100yrs for massive free ranging of livestock, then as long as i obey the law, the critter is for who ever catches it.
and for bigdog's comment of better not get caught hauling a marked hog, make the first shot count. if its all private properyt where surrounding ranchers andland owners have a resipricating agreement as to whos hogs are whos and their marks, then it would be considered cattle rustling which still is a shooting offense, but public property is exactly that for the entire public, not just surounding hunters/land owners
