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Daddy raised pigs along with about everything else. Reading some of the posts about pigs everyone had their own unique experience with them four legged plows. At any given time dad would have over a thousand pigs. He said, "They smelled like money." He could triple the market price, for milo and wheat, by running it through the pigs as feed. Instead of selling his grain he recycled it through the pigs. I guess he did it right. He always received top market dollar for his pigs at the livestock auction.
For all those born and raised in cities and believe chocolate milk comes from chocolate cows. We aren't all cold blooded killers looking to "shoot something-anything" We don't put trophy heads on the wall or stuffed animals in the den. At times it is necessary to protect our livestock just as yours and my ancestors did. Our domesticated animals aren't good about protecting themselves be it sheep, cows, goats, chickens, whatever. It is why shepherds guarded the flock they were to care for.
In the same thought train our crops aren't that good about protecting their fruit or grain, or whatever either. We not only protect our livestock and crops from pests large and small but also from four and two legged scavengers.
I don't kill for fun but to protect that which is under my care. I pray no one must go hungry because some person didn't understand the laws of nature. One very destructive pest species is the Wild Boar which is decimating crops and small animals across the south United States.
Wild pigs cause at least $1.5 billion in damages and control costs each year. Wild pigs can harm state's ecosystems, agriculture and livestock with destructive behavior, diseases
They eat almost anything, leaving only weeds to grow
http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20071028/INVASIVE02/...
Killing at a hundred yards? If they are in the brush more likely five to twenty yards and one better be darn quick. They have huge razor sharp tusks. They will attack just as often as they will turn and disappear into the brush They are almost impossible to put down with one shot from a pistol. Did I mention they are also tough to kill? Seldom do they open range except at night. Call me a coward but I had rather that critter be eight hundred to twelve hundred yards out when he is in my cross hairs.
Don't cry for these "imported pests" as they aren't domesticated pigs. China and Japan pays top dollar for the meat of the wild boar if it is dressed and processed in sanitary conditions. There are bounty hunters making a scratch living marketing them.
Personally, they carry too many diseases.
Try and not judge but understand even when the idea what others do isn't what we ourselves approve of. Not agreeing with or not giving approval of actions, deeds, or lifestyle isn't judgement. It is simply not one's cup of tea and that is okay.
Life is a kaleidoscope of people and ideas. All unique, each one offering something we should try to understand. Or in the least, believe their diversity is what makes our world and our life interesting from beginning to that final breath.
The most perfect time in life is holding the one we love more than life itself in our arms, or being held by them at the end of a hard day.
Life isn't meant to be worn until it is worn out. It is meant to be lived.
always,
Barb
Comments
A City View of the Subject
Pigs are men you come across in the subway, wild boars are male creatures often found in night clubs and bars.
HW Coyle
a.k.a. Nancy Cole
Note: In Germany boars often ran wild in major training areas. More than once I had to pull in an OP because the rootie-toots, as we called them, were chasing my soldiers.
"You may be what you resolve to be."
T.J. Jackson
Feral pigs
Most of the wild pigs in the US are descended from domesticated pigs allowed to run free and having gone feral. But there is a strain, both in the South Atlantic states and in California of pigs descended from Russian wild boar specifically imported to be hunted. Hybrid pigs from crosses with the feral domestics are now rampant, if not exactly common, across the American South and many Western states, too. Some of the beasts get to legendary size, perhaps a 1000 pounds or more, which seems unlikely since they don't have the soft life of domestic pigs. But Hogzilla, a wild hybrid pig killed in Georgia in 2004 did weigh 800 pounds.
Perhaps the most alarming and disgusting thing these demi-feral animals do is to root in graveyards looking for freshly buried corpses. A local cemetery was given permission to hire bow hunters, out of season, to hunt down a sounder of wild pigs in the nearby hills and canyons after several graves were desecrated, including that of my father. The pigs couldn't actually get at the bodies which are in metal and concrete outer coffin-vaults six feet down but they did dig as much as a foot of turf and sod off the fresh graves.
Bow hunters were specifically used due to the nearby schools and suburban subdivisions; guns have too much range and the sound of gunfire in their backyards would scare people. Killing a full grown sow (it's usually the sows who cause this destruction) with a bow or crossbow at 40 yards or so does not sound like fun to me but people do it for sport as well as for meat and conservation reasons. Interestingly, CA allows hunting wild pigs with crossbows at anytime when it is legal to hunt ANY other animals with bows or guns in the same area. Otherwise, crossbows are mostly illegal during archery seasons, except for turkeys (??).
I have, btw, never been hunting and don't intend to. :)
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Wild Pigs in 1974
Ah, yes. I not so fondly recall going on a state sanctioned wild boar hunt. I was there solely as a backup (there were five hunters and five backups).
Three of the hunters were armed with black powder revolvers and two with hunting bows. Each of the backups were required to have at least a .357 magnum (which was my preferred sidearm at the time). If I'd known that wild boar were not just 'big pigs', I would never have agreed to go along.
We were attacked by one wild boar which came at two of our group from less than twenty feet away. They move pretty damned fast. Reminded me of a bear I saw once at Yosemite. That bear covered a hundred and fifty feet in about two and a half seconds. The wild boar didn't do much worse.
It was hit with two black power shots and I put three .357 hollow points into it before it went down and it was still trying to move when one of the other backups put another one into it.
Believe me, wild boar are not 'cute little pigs'. They are large, deadly predators.
Anesidora