Saturday, March 4, 2017

That's not humane!

The usual suspect on my own personal social media are sharing a story about Texas and feral hogs and poisoning same with the anticoagulant Warfarin. 

"Oh the poor things!  How is this sporting?  Inhumane!"

For those that don't know, Warfarin is prescribe to people to keep blood clots from forming in your capillaries, thus helping to head off a heart attack or stroke.  If you get cut on Warfarin it may take some time to get the bleeding controlled.  If you overdose, you get what happens to rats or feral hogs that eat baited Warfarin.  You internal organ bleed.

I include rats and hogs together because they are the same thing.  Pests to be eradicated.  This isn't hunting.  No need or call to be sporting.  That's not Wilbur from Charlotte's Web.  Rats only edge Pigs in destructiveness because Rats helped spread Plague. 

4 comments:

Projectilist said...

Bad idea. It's poison. It can't be only distributed to the hogs. It will affect other wildlife and livestock, possibly the soil and water. Additionally, some hunters eat the hog meat. How would they know if the meat is tainted?

LCB said...

I don't have a problem with controlling the hogs no matter how it's done, but this method is going to have major unintended consequences. What happens when a Bald Eagle feeds on a dead hog, and dies from the poison? Everyone will go nuts!

ProudHillbilly said...

This seems ripe for the Rule of Unintended Consequences. Not to mention that it interferes with my visions of a pit into which a properly shot and butchered wild hog is laid to rest on coals in preperation for a feast...

But like deer they a problem, and more dangerous. When we were doing field work in southern LA we were told that if wild hogs appeared to get in the truck and stay there because they'd tear us up as fast as they tore their surroundings up.

New Jovian Thunderbolt said...

What happens when a bald eagle eats a dead rat now?