FeralHogs_GenieoutoftheBottle_Tompkins_Shannon_PorterTX_15June2020_Reel4021.mp3

Shannon Tompkins [00:00:01] Feral hog population just, just explodes.

Shannon Tompkins [00:00:07] You know, squirrels are one of the, part of the collateral, the considerable collateral damage, that feral hogs have done to wildlife, and not just in east Texas, but across Texas, across, well, across huge swaths of the U.S..

Shannon Tompkins [00:00:22] It seems that what happened to spread the feral hog population was a couple of things. One is, as deer hunting became really, really popular in east Texas, what's happened with deer hunters, everybody puts out corn feeders, and they build food plots.

Shannon Tompkins [00:00:54] So these, for feral hogs have (and a lot of these guys run their feeders much of the year), feral hogs have a ton of free food. So you've got a, you've got a kind of an auxiliary nutrition source for them.

Shannon Tompkins [00:01:17] Also, people began (you know, feral hogs are fun to hunt; they're great to eat), people started moving feral hogs around, releasing feral hogs, hauling, trapping, live-trapping, and then hauling and releasing feral hogs. So you have feral hogs spreading by human transmission all across the state.

Shannon Tompkins [00:01:46] It was only just a few years ago that finally the Texas Animal Health Commission, you know, put a stop to, to, you know, transferring and releasing feral hogs across the state. Of course, you know, the genie was out of the bottle by then.

Shannon Tompkins [00:02:04] But, and it still goes on. I mean, there are still, you know, there are still people trapping and hauling and releasing feral hogs across, across Texas.

Shannon Tompkins [00:02:15] It's, it's become such a big business now that when you, when something's valuable, people are going to find a way to maintain it, when it's economically valuable.