Unusual? No, this is really a typical marriage of agriculture, government agencies, science and hunters, working on problems of wildlife management, feral hogs in this case.
Notes from Texas Parks & Wildlife:
Feral hogs are running wild across Texas, at great cost to farmers, ranchers, and native wildlife. Hunters are helping, but science may prove critical to controlling the invasion on a broader scale. For more information on feral hogs and feral hog control, visit: http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/…
When it comes to feral hogs, every Texan turns environmentalist.
More:
Sign for Texas Parks and Wildlife Department headquarters – Wikipedia image
- Central Texas city trying to cope with feral hogs (reporternews.com)
- Feral hogs cause havoc in neighborhood (wtvr.com)
- Central Texas city trying to cope with feral hogs (star-telegram.com)
- Some Texas landowners profiting from feral hog invasion (southeastfarmpress.com)
- Beaumont cemetery gets state help against hogs (star-telegram.com)
- CNBNEW Hunting and Fishing: Hunters Permitted to take Feral Hogs (gloucestercitynews.net)
- Pennsylvania boar hunting ban nears approval (triblive.com)
- Beaumont cemetery gets state help against hogs (kfdm.com)
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
James, maybe your family can get them from Michigan. I stumbled into a controversy a few months ago: Michigan fish and wildlife (DNR, I discover later) had declared feral hog stock to be illegal. Unfortunately, several hog farmers had been importing them, for closed-range hunters, which pays more than raising hogs.
The farmers complained about “jackboot” tactics, declaring pigs illegal, which required farmers to shoot the ferals in their pens, under the Invasive Species Order. Here’s the Fox News misreporting of the story. Michigan DNR complained about their position and the order being miscast — read the response here.
A lot of the Michiganders were shocked to hear that these hogs are considered nuisances in other places.
Which only goes to show that common sense doesn’t win out with conspiracy nuts and people irrationally opposed to all government activities.
And, if you want feral hog to barbecue, you can probably get some, cheap, in Michigan.
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[…] Speaking of science, here are two science related videos. One is over the feral pig problem (in Texas; hat tip to Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub) […]
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Can send them up here to Minnesota. My family will have devoured all 100 in about..2 days tops
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100 hogs trapped? Is there one barbecue joint in town that gets them all?
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And, evidently, they are doing their best to destroy newly planted vegetation along the Mission Reach of the San Antonio River Improvements Project. http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Mission-Reach-and-its-management-take-final-shape-4285382.php
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