So, I dumped a bunch of Weekend Adventure photos last night that included pictures of the 11 and counting deprecating hogs Ive help trap and butcher from camp. I didnt think about at the time, but I have a number of friends who love, rescue, and even own pigs, to which those photos are probably a bit insensitive. While in the future Ill try and be a little more considerate while chronicling weekends (dead animals out of context do nothing to further hunting advocacy), I figured this might be a decent time to explain a) these specific circumstances and b) why I believe hunting to be an ethical asset. In terms of a, these are not like farm pigs or pet pigs. Wild hogs are a *huge* issue in the southern United States. They are not native, but an extremely destructive invasive species. smithsonianmag/science-nature/a-plague-of-pigs-in-texas-73769069/ The pictures below are what I have personally seen these hogs do. They tear up an area like that overnight and move onto a different area night after night. That dog was one Dianna and I rescued after it had gotten on the wrong side of a boar. One attacked a friend of mine at my wifes camp. Luckily he had his revolver on him, but it still took all 6 chambers to put an end to it. They also multiply like rabbits, to the point where Texas basically has a shoot on sight hunting policy and the population is *still* exploding. ...In Texas. Think about that for a moment. There have been 11 of these eliminated from the property in the past weeks. Think what that means in terms of population density. So yeah, these are not Babe or Wilbur. Onto point b, we arent just shooting and dumping these animals. Every one gets cleaned and quartered and either eaten by those of us who have helped or a member of the local community. For those of you who eat pork products already, this is an ideal scenario. If you were to eat pork from the store, it most likely grew up in a factory farm with very little (if any) freedom, poor diet, dirty conditions, terrifying slaughter conditions and specifically fattened up. The pork in my freezer, however, is grass fed, organic, free range, ethically raised, ethically slaughtered, hormone free, lean meat. Out of those two scenarios...which would you rather support? So while I will try to be more discreet in the future for the sake of my pig enthusiast friends, I thought it might be a good idea to present the fuller context to those who might not be exposed to this sort of thing.
Posted on: Sun, 23 Nov 2014 19:26:05 +0000
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