Oldgringo wrote:Commercializing the killing of hogs, or any other wild creature,...
... and we don't need to be giving them fuel for their flames of hatred and self-rightousness.
I see that aspect a little differently.
Feral hogs are not wild, no more native to Texas than fire ants, and a threat to genuine wild animals (as has been pointed out).
Anti-hunters already hate hunting, weapons, and any killing of animals, even slaughtering domestic livestock or poultry for human consumption. Most are fanatics, and some are clinically insane.
They could not hate more than they already do.
- Jim
Fear, anger, hatred, and greed. The devil's all-you-can-eat buffet.
anygunanywhere wrote:
I did not say shooting feral pigs from a chopper was hunting.
I understand that you didn't say that in your post but you are responding to a threat about HB 836 - HUNTING feral hogs from helicopters. The hunting part was implied from the thread title.
I have nothing against hunters, hunting, or removing destructive hogs from one's own property. Nor do I imply that one should not be able to do just that! Not a place for governement to dictate what you do on your own property. I was just offering an opinion of what we are calling a hunt. I am not opposed to a deer lease either. I just find some humor in baiting an animal with a corn feeder and calling that hunting. I don't make many friends with my opinion on Golf either. Chasing a ball around in wearing funny looking pants in an electric car drinking beer is hardly a sport. Recreational activity yes, sport no.
Right or wrong, just my opinion. (My father in-law didn't agree either. But he's a Texas hunter and loves Golf -nuff said)
I agree that use of helicopters to chase pigs out and kill them just gives the anti-gun nuts some fuel for the fire. You might as well load up some AK-47s and a few AR-15 rifles to complete the image.
I'm not trying to ruffle feathers...just poking some fun out of ya
Just for the record, the actual title of the bill is, "AN ACT relating to sport hunting of feral hogs by helicopter."
I'm just guessing that the bill's author called it hunting because it provides an additional exception to the prohibition against hunting from aircraft.
You can always find someone who says your sport isn't a sport. Bow-hunters might think shotgunners are wimps.
I have limited hunting experience, all of it here in Texas (if you don't count shooting wild rabbits with a pellet rifle when I was a kid in California). There seems to me to be a conflict of definitions here.
If a rancher/land owner wants to hire/permit people to rid his land of nuisance hogs from a helicopter, I see no difference between that, and hiring a person to spray his crops for pests from an airplane. But I also agree that this is not hunting - it is pest eradication, whether or not the shooters are conscientious, make clean kills, and recover all the meat - and I don't particularly have a problem with it.
Now, reasonable people may disagree about whether or not shooting game animals from a stand or using bait is hunting or not, but in Colorado hunters have access to publicly owned hunting lands in the hundreds of thousands to millions of acres. Stalking your prey makes perfect sense in that environment. In Texas, where it has already been pointed out that most land is privately owned, a deer lease may be as small as 100 acres or less - which makes stalking almost impossible. Since you can't go to the game (without trespassing), you have to make the game come to you - hence the use of feeders. And since the land area available to you might be kind of small, compared to what you have access to in Colorado, setting up a stable shooting platform from which you can survey the largest part of your available land without detection by the game also makes perfect sense - particularly from a safety standpoint. A hunter in a stand with a clear field of fire is far less likely to shoot another hunter accidentally on an adjoining property. And even with a stand and a feeder, the hunter still has to know something about the habits of the game he is hunting. He needs to know the prevailing wind directions. He needs to know where the game trails are, the likely bedding areas, and the direction of the sun at sunup and sundown relative to his stand and shooting lanes, etc., etc.
At least that's my 2¢.
“Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.”
I don't make many friends with my opinion on Golf either. Chasing a ball around in wearing funny looking pants in an electric car drinking beer is hardly a sport. Recreational activity yes, sport no. 
