Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire KDFW - Really ?

Just read this link on WKYT from KY Dept Fish and Wildlife. Asking people NOT TO SHOOT Wild Hogs. Unbelievable...

Hogs Invasive Species in KY - DO NOT SHOOT...

They’re “encouraging”

Oh wow

Obviously the person writing the article knows
nothing about feral hogs and what a
destructive useless nuisance they are.
Says "they might eat crops " or something like
that. They eat whatever they encounter that
doesn't move fast enough to get out of the way.
The old adage that " whatever they don't
f**k up, they s**t on " was tailor made
for feral hogs
I used to think that having them as some
something available to hunt was neat,
until I had to start fixing fence and filling
holes and fixing everything they tore up
on my own property

Never underestimate the anti-gun retardation of the KY Dept of Fish and Wildlife.

Let the state handle it?? Really??? .Gov's are schizophrenic in their approach to hogs and predators:

https://www.rgj.com/story/news/loca...e-cyanide-bomb-kill-coyotes/71735036007/

US agency to end use of 'cyanide bomb' to kill coyotes and other predators, citing safety concerns

RENO, Nev. — The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has halted the use of spring-loaded traps that disperse cyanide powder to kill coyotes and other livestock predators, a practice wildlife advocates have tried to outlaw for decades due to safety concerns.

The M-44 ejector-devices that critics call “cyanide bombs” have unintentionally killed thousands of pets and non-predator wildlife, including endangered species, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services. They have a scented bait and emit a poisonous cloud when triggered by a physical disturbance.

The Bureau of Land Management quietly posted a notice on its website last week that it no longer will use the devices across the 390,625 square miles it manages nationally — an area twice the size of California — much of it where ranchers graze cattle and sheep.

Other federal agencies — including the National Park Service, and the Fish and Wildlife Service — already prohibit the devices. But the Forest Service and 10 states still use them in some form.

Eight unsuccessful bills have been introduced in Congress since 2008 to ban the the traps on federal and/or state lands. Sponsors of legislation pending in the U.S. House and Senate that would ban them on both say they're optimistic the bureau's new position will help pave the way for broader support.

Brooks Fahy, executive director of the Oregon-based watchdog group Predator Defense, has been working for 40 years to ban the use of sodium cyanide in the traps. He emphasized that it's registered under the Environmental Protection Agency as a Category 1 toxicant, the highest level of toxicity.

“I can’t believe they’re still being put on the landscape and they continue to harm people,” Fahy said. “I’ve seen M-44s set right on the edge of a trail.”

M-44s consist of a stake driven into the ground with a spring and canister loaded with the chemical. Marked inconsistently and sometimes not at all, humans have mistaken them for sprinkler heads or survey markers.

Federal agencies rely on Wildlife Services to deal with problem animals — whether in remote areas or airports across the country — using lethal and non-lethal forces. The change on Bureau of Land Management land came under a recent revision of a memorandum of understanding with Wildlife Services obtained by The Associated Press on Monday.

It's effective immediately but can be canceled by either side with 60 days' notice.

Wildlife Services has used M-44s to control predators, mostly in the West, since the 1930s. The American Sheep Industry Association and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association were among 100 industry groups that wrote to Congress this year, stressing the importance of the program. They said predators cause more than $232 million in livestock losses annually.

About a dozen people have been seriously harmed over the past 25 years by M-44s on federal lands, according to Predator Defense.

Between 2000-16, Wildlife Services reported 246,985 animals killed by M-44s, including at least 1,182 dogs. From 2014-22, the agency said M-44s intentionally killed 88,000 animals and unintentionally killed more than 2,000 animals .

Public outcry over the devices grew after a family dog was killed in 2017 in Pocatello, Idaho, and Canyon Mansfield, then 14, was injured after accidentally triggering a device placed on public land about 400 feet from their home. In 2020, the federal government admitted negligence and agreed to pay the family $38,500 to resolve a lawsuit.

“We are so happy to finally see one federal government department banning another’s reckless and indiscriminate actions,” Canyon Mansfield's father, Mark Mansfield, said last week.

Democratic Rep. Jared Huffman, of California, who is the lead sponsor of the bill that would outlaw use of M-44s on all state and federal lands, has named the current version “Canyon's Law,” after Mansfield.

“Cyanide bombs are a cruel and indiscriminate device that have proven to be deadly for pets, humans, and wildlife – and they have no business being on our public lands,” Huffman said last week in praising the bureau's move.

Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley, of Oregon, who is the lead sponsor of companion legislation in the Senate, said he’s encouraged the Biden administration is “taking a positive step forward to keep cyanide bombs off of our public lands.”

Fahy acknowledged efforts in Congress to ban the use of M-44s have gained little traction over the past 15 years.

But he said publicity over the Mansfield case has changed the political landscape more than anything he's seen since 1982 when President Ronald Reagan revoked an executive order issued by President Richard Nixon in 1972 that had banned use of all poisons by federal agents on federal lands.

Some real idiots are running KY Dept of Fish and Wildlife.

It's the same bunch of geniuses who have a 270 and up caliber restriction on bears.

Because a 6.5 would bounce off a black bear.

270 & up for Elk as well as I recall.

No consideration for velocity or energy. A 7x30 Waters OK(30-30 case) OK. But a, 264 Win Mag is not. Typical bureaucracy BS.

Don't feel like the Lone Ranger. Here in Washington, our beloved (??) Governor has been making efforts to name as many anti hunters and commercial fishers to our Game and Fish Commission. Don't try hunting or fishing if you do not have a lawyer in your day pack. My native Colorado has gone south many years ago, since tweety birds are more important to the economy than hunting and fishing dollars. (sarcasm off).

Shooting pigs is shooting pigs. It’s fun and should be legal. TN has tried the same BS.

If you’re actually serious about CONTROLLING wild pigs in a given parcel, then the only time you’ll shoot them is when the entire sounder is caught in a trap.

Hunting pigs and controlling the pig population are mutually exclusive activities, as you can’t shoot enough of them randomly to ever get rid of them. They just leave and then come back at some point. Notice that guys who shoot lots of pigs never seem to run out of pigs. I don’t doubt they’re having a ball, but they’ll never run out of pigs.

Thinking that state game commissions know squat about managing game and non game species is another mistake. We didn’t have coyotes 35 years ago and TWRA did less than dick nothing to prevent their invasion.

People Suck.

Amen.

You want to see a split hair, Wyoming allows 22 caliber rifles for deer but they have to use a 60 grain bullet or heavier. I realize they have to draw the line somewhere but 60 is effective but 55 isn't?

Wonder what KDFW has in mind.
Would be interesting to know.

You have to understand........it's Kentucky, and when you tell a Kentuckian not to shoot something, that's when he will. They know what they're doing.....lol.

Had a bunch of them real close to me 20 years ago, guys were shooting them day and night. PAGC said shooting them was gonna make it hard to trap them, and decided it was illegal. Last I heard they had trapped a bunch and for years...nothing.
Figured they had wiped out............recently it was on the news that PA was having hog problems in several spots. My area was the worst! Way to go PAGC!



Wish they were where we hunt, I'd be glad to shoot some.



That might be an Appalachian thing?😉

Maybe just a Hillbilly, Redneck, Coon Ass....Rural Raised, White blue collar tendency!

I am not a fan of the M44 devices at all. There are other less effective ways to get it done. But you have to work harder.

That said predators need control even though I won't shoot every coyote fox bobcat etc..

OTOH I believe we should shoot every single feral pig you see. And that won't be enough.

And the quote makes TOTAL sense. The harder you hunt the harder they become to kill. Kind of like coyotes.. If you are going to trap them, and that is a much better way to control rather than hunt, you leave them alone until you can get all or most of a sounder.

I suspect this is all out of context which isn't unusual these days.