American hoggers

I agree and disagree.

I just got through with a Feral hog seminar week before last that was put on by the federal wildlife and fisheries and the USGS. We had State and Federal Biologists, Game Wardens (both State and Federal), and a host of "Experts" that attended. They gave a lot of presentations on the damages and the rise in populations that they are seeing and have being reported. We discussed different ways to help slow the progression of the pig population down and of course it is pretty much a dead end street because they do not have the data to get the funding that they would need to implement a Federal or State funded project to start battling the situation at hand. All the methods were discussed and most all agreed that the dogs were the most effective, however, they think that the dog hunters are mostly to blame and would like to put serious penalties on dog hunters or trappers for taking a hog alive, which is completely ignorant in my opinion.

Now for my point: As the show may project a negative aspect in some regards it also projects the serious damage these hogs are doing and how dangerous they can be, which is positive. The viewers can form whatever opinion they like, but they are not the ones that we have to worry about because they more than likely do not own land and therefore do not pay the taxes that landowners do and make contributions to the Politicians that would push or throw out any bills that may come up concerning dog hunters. The folks that we have to be worried about are the so called "Experts". One of the speakers, who has a very popular night vision hunting service in GA. is trying to push a law that would cost us our dogs, vehicles, guns and a 5K dollar a hog fine if we were to get caught transporting them for any reason, even within state lines. I dont know if he is trying to push this to boost his business, or he seriously thinks that is going to work, but I think it is about as stupid of an idea as it gets for several different reasons. Ultimately the landowners are the ones we need on our side and they dont care one bit about that show or what happens to the dogs or hogs, but they do care if some "Outlaw hog hunters" are trespassing, tearing up property, leaving gates open, etc. So basically we have to promote responsibility amongst ourselves and keep a positive image in the landowners eyes about dog hunters.

If they did outlaw hog hunting with dogs, how long do you think it would be until they repealed that? I dont think it would last more than 3 years, before they were begging us to get back in the woods and I think that I would have to charge them to fix their screw up.

I hope my statement makes sense because I think I confused myself trying to type after driving all day.

Joey