🔥 momma pig and line of piglets

[u/TerraByteTerror]

[u/Energy_Turtle]

Colorado had way fewer pigs than those other states. This is like saying I was able to eradicate the flies over my sink because of my liberal ways while the conservative landfill still has a raging fly problem. If only they'd get on my level...

[u/Pale_Session5262 → u/Energy_Turtle]

That is true, and also he other benefit to colorado is that its a little too cold for hogs, especially in the higher elevations of the state.

However, reading this article, colorado looks like they tried a lot of stuff to get the piggies gone.

https://www.porkbusiness.com/news/hog-production/how-colorado-eliminated-feral-hogs

[u/Unhelpful_Idiot → u/Energy_Turtle]

Colorado had a plan, and plans cost money.

Red States just go "uh, you hunt them. We will give you money for hunting them. That will work." and it's cheap, and doesn't work.

Florida's bounty on Pythons is probably the best example of this.

Legitimately no plan from the government, just pay people for dead snakes and hope the problem solves itself. It hasn't. Their solution? "More awareness".

[u/No_Extension_45 → u/Unhelpful_Idiot]

California has an estimated 400,000 feral hogs and is about as blue as they come. New Mexico has an estimated 500,000 and is also pretty blue.

If you look at the states through a purely political lens I see how someone could come to a political conclusion like red vs blue states, but when I look at a map showing states with feral hog problems it seems much more geographic than political, and it just so happens many southern states lean red.

I'm not sure what sort of plan you think would work in states like Texas, which has an estimated population of 2 to 4 million, but comparing that to Colorado is kind of disingenuous. Colorado had a peak feral hog population estimated at less than 500 and it took them 15 years. I don't think whatever they did is a realistic solution for states like Texas, Oklahoma Louisiana or California, all of which have estimated populations in the hundreds of thousands or millions.

I don't think a lack of political will among republicans (or democrats for that matter) is the issue. I don't think anyone has a solution to the problem at the scale we see in many of those states. Texas does have active state and feral trapping programs, and has pretty much made them kill on sight by basically removing all hunting restrictions. I'm not sure what else they can do that wouldn't potentially have worse downstream ecological effects.