OK, here it is - What if the state were to put a internal tag in several hogs that are randomly released around the state.It could only be removed when the hog is dead and make each one worth $1000.00 or more. I bet the public would crank up the slaughter on these pests.
Thoughts ?

i think a bounty would work out better

cool idea, that would be really fun. Kind of like Willy Wonka's golden ticket only inside a dead hog.

lol yeah but by releasing them there not helping, why not just tell everyone that they have a tag on them and its worth a 1000$, gov. already lies to us why not make it useful to protect our crops lol.

True very true

Bounty would cost way too much. They could put 1000 in a bunch and 100,000 in a few and it would still be way below 10-20 per hog on bounty. Also When you start a bounty dead pigs will come from states all over. There has been a lot of fraud with other animals coyotes , beavers, nutria , pigs are a bit more trouble to fill your freezer up with out of staters but it would happen. Just trying to come up with something. Whats going on now aint working.

I think it would be interesting for sure. They should give it a try at least and see how it works out.

I don't like the idea, because when we shoot a pig, we let them lay there. We drag them off to the side of the field and they lay there for vultures and coyotes.

+1 But as was stated also, people would be hauling in dead hogs by the truck loads from surrounding states too. Something that seems strange is that they have open/closed season on hogs in a lot of the WMA and Forests (Public Hunting lands). With them being such a problem, why not have it open season on them year round?

Last season, Kimble county had a good idea. Hunters cut the tails off and for every hog tail you brought in, it gave you one entry into a drawing for $500. The tails were easier to get rid of than the hog. Something needs to be done.

Give everyone that shoots a wild hog a leftover FEMA trailer..........

Good point on the WMA's not all allowing hog hunting. I hunted Caprock Canyons State Park a few years back for Auodad and they wanted us to shoot hogs. I literally saw hundreds of hogs each day I hunted. I asked about hunts for hog only and they said they wouldnt be doing it anytime soon despite the fact that they knew they had way to many.

Bounties wouldn't cost too much and some already do this. $2/scalp is a whole lot easier than trucking the whole, live feral hog to a certified buying facility only to get pennies on the dollar and be out of time and gas. The bounty on feral hogs if for ANY size, not just those 80 lbs and over.

Counties that have a bounty, do not require the entire animal to be brought in,scalp-only and also, only the residents of that county can bring in the scalps taken only from their county; an affidavit is required which is a legal document.

There are no counties offering bounties on beaver or nutria and not sure where you are receiving that information.

There are quite a few factors that are contributing to the feral hog population increase.

Caprock Canyon is a state park, not one of our WMA's and their main goal is public visitation and can only schedule hunts on certain times of the year. There are several state parks that have an abundance of feral hogs and yes, they do want you to shoot as many as you can during your draw hunt period to help reduce the population and also have an extra species that can be taken. If you don't shoot them, then you shouldn't complain about an extra hunt. They do take notice on how many are brought in and if the draw hunters are taking any.

Brazos Bend SP has draw deer hunts also and they allow feral hogs in unlimited amounts to be taken during those hunts, but do not have an extra hunt category for feral hogs. The main reason why is the visitation to that park is so high from the surrounding area and for the diversity of wildlife that is seen, particularly the alligators and deer, closing it more often than they do for another hunt(s) would mean losing a tremendous amount of visitation and needed income for our park.

The bounties for beaver are in La.and Arkansas. The nutria are in La. From what I know the fraud rate can run as high as 40 % . This is when one county/parish has a bounty and neighboring county does not. They come in from all over.
Pig scalps would be no different. How many domestic pig scalps do you think would show up? It would be a lot. IMO- a foolish waste of money. Take cheating out of the way. Use the greed to kill wild local pigs only. It would be worth a test on a small scale first.

You're talking LA & FL, not Texas, so you can't comment logically. Domestic scalps have not been seen in the counties that have a bounty on them. Just how many domestic beavers and nutria are there? You're comparing apples to oranges. But that is your opinion and not everyone has to agree with you.

i like the -bring in the tails for an entry into a drawing for a half grand-- idea. i would be bringin in tails left and right lol!

i think the prize thing would be pretty cool. i no it would make me and my buddies wanna go shoot more pigs. and we would be more driven to kill more of them. and probably get as many guns after them as we could.

BINGO! This is exactly what you would hope for. More killing, More drive for more hog killing. It would be a upfront, known amount of money to be spent. Not an open-ended money drain like a bounty would be.

Okay, Let me be more clear about my point. I used beaver and nutria as an example to show how hard it is to control a bounty.
As far as scalps- No one is going to get very excited to collect $2 for a scalp. but you put a tags in a scattered few for big$$ . A lot of hogs will be shot and sliced up.
I'm sure there would be some domestic hog scalps make it through to collect a bounty. I have killed plenty of wild ones that look 100% domestic. Most don't but some do.

There are counties that have a hog and coyote contest already that run during the entire deer season and also year-round. Usually 3 places and then a bonus for the heaviest hog/coyote. But this still hasn't reduced the amount of feral hogs in the counties that have them incorporated. Not only can they enter the contest and place there, but also get the bounty on the scalps.

A prize/money if no different that what's above, and that isn't working. Someone that thinks a prize is going to increase folks to kill more feral hogs rather than a bounty on them, is mistaking. The bounty would have to be enough for people to engage in it just like a prize, but that's still doesn't fix one of the big problems that is still out there with those selling feral hogs illegally. There's one of the biggest problems and the Texas Animal Health Comission is in charge of that one.

Big bounties were once offered and they flat out shot the fire out of feral hogs in that county. Someone, somewhere, the money for bounties and prize money is going to have to be generated and the general public is taxed to death now! It sure doesn't need to come from that.

Tagging hogs with heavy prize tags in the state may or may not work, but you have to have some kind of conservation effort willing to put up the money in order to do something of this nature, similar to the CCA with their tagged redfish up and down the coast. The only thing problem, not everyone has the same access to all lands as we do to all the coastal waters where the tagged redfish are released.

I agree finding the money would be a problem. but what is going on now ain't working.
If anyone else has something better. Post it up!

Heck, add a $1.00 donation (voluntarily) to the "wild pig iradication fund" for each hunting or fishing license sold in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. I bet enough of us are just sick enough of feral hogs to chip in a buck to make the prize money. And heck, just make it an annual contest! Most pigs takes all.

Hogs are just like coyotes until you can use some serious poison to work on them forget it.