Texas is possibly going to approve hunting from hot air balloons. Texas has a real bad hog problem that really needs dealt with. http://kxan.com/2017/05/25/texas-approves-feral-hog-hunting-by-hot-air-balloon/?preview_id=477896
That sounds like a lot of "hot air" to me Buster!!!! Yank***************yank******************yank!! Tommy
There are practical aspects of 'ballooning' that could make it difficult to collect the harvest. If this means 'shoot 'em and leave 'em', I'm agin it. Marie Antoinette was falsely rumored to have said "Let them eat cake." I say "Let them eat pork."
Feral hogs are a Very, very big problem in this part of Texas, and it's getting worse every day. That's why Texas made it legal to shoot 'em from helicopters... but the hogs learn fast. They take cover when they hear a helicopter. The logic is we could sneak up on them in a balloon. Many are kinda 'on the fence' over shoot 'em and leave 'em but they're sooo destructive it's necessary. Ranchers lose grazing, farmers lose crops, cars get totaled out on the road when a big hog runs out. They're everywhere! .
Obviously, I am commenting from the Frozen North where feral pigs don't live. So I may be out of line when I suggest that organized 'harvests' which collect the carcasses for butchering are at least a possibility. It's such a waste of protein.
Many of the older large hogs their meat is not good to eat. I have eaten piglets and they really didn't have much taste. When field cleaning you have to be very careful and wear protective clothing because they can carry some nasty diseases. Besides that the vultures will do away with a hog in a matter of days. Not to mention the other wild critters that will feast on it. I saw a really big goat that got hit by a car and there wasn't even a bone left in 2 days. Don't take a nap out in the field because the vultures just might devour you. If you have ever seen how a vulture eats an armadillo or many animals you will not sleep with your hind end up in the air. The county next to me I believe pays $5 bounty per hog ear.
Alabama has the same problem with deer. Unsuspectingly last year the season was lengthened two weeks. This year it was lengthened 15 days. That gives from October first to January fifteenth.
There's a disease problem lurking there. When beasties get too thick on the ground, disease spreads easily. Varying Hares have a (Tularemia?) cycle alternating between overcrowding and disease outbreaks that reduce their populations drastically. Wondering if Wasting Disease or some other affliction can cause that phenomenon in deer.
