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'Hog Apocalypse': Texas Has a New Plan to Kill Feral Pigs

The people of Texas are getting a bit more serious about the feral hogs problem plaguing the state.

By Craig Hlavaty 

The people of Texas are getting a bit more serious about the feral hogs problem plaguing the state.

The nasty swine cost Texans nearly $52 million in damages a year making eradicating them a major issue. Nationally, they cost Americans nearly $1.5 billion.

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller approved the use of pesticides this week to aid in the killing of feral hogs, long a scourge of Texas landowners. The approved poison is called Kaput Feral Hog Lure and contains warfarin which is already used to kill larger rodents.

The colorful Miller offered up a meaty quote to reporters on Monday regarding the poison plan.

"This is going to be the hog apocalypse, if you like: If you want them gone, this will get them gone," Miller said.

Some Texas hunters are miffed because they enjoy hunting and killing the hogs with firearms or a bow and arrow, if they are especially skilled. For hunters shooting the hogs is a lot more fun than just poisoning them. The Texas Hog Hunters Association's Eydin Hansen says hunters who shoot and kill the hogs for their dinner tables would be less likely to if they suspect the hogs have poison in their systems. That group has started a Change.org petition to protest Miller's decision.

Scavenger animals like buzzards and coyotes may also be exposed to the chemical pellets aimed at eradicating feral hogs if they eat the hog carcass.

Miller's office wrote in statement to Dallas' CBS11 they fully-researched the Kaput product and considered the environmental impact. before approving its use on feral hogs

"Kaput Feral Hog Bait has been researched extensively and field-tested in Texas over the past decade in partnerships with various state agencies including TDA. Hogs are susceptible to warfarin toxicity, whereas humans and other animals require much higher levels of exposure to achieve toxic effects," the statement said.

The substance will only be available to licensed pesticide applicators, according to Miller's office, and dispensed in special hog feeders built for attracting the hogs.

"Warfarin has been studied extensively in animals and is practically non-toxic to birds. Due to the insolubility of warfarin in water, there should be no impact to aquatic life. Non-target wildlife, livestock and domestic pets would have to ingest extremely large quantities over the course of several days to reach a toxic level of warfarin in the bloodstream," Miller's office added.

The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service has approved of the use of warfarin. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has been consulted as well and they support this new feral hog control management practice.

"In general, secondary exposure to other animals is low because the levels of warfarin in target animals are generally too low to be toxic to either a predator or scavenger," Miller's statement read.

What about the nagging worry that a feral hog's meat is inedible? Some people say they taste just as good or better than standard pig flesh.

"Warfarin at 0.005 percent as a feral hog toxicant has been shown to have a low level of residue in hog meat, especially in muscle tissue, which is what humans typically consume. One person would have to eat 2.2 lbs of hog liver -- where the warfarin is most concentrated in the body -- to achieve the same exposure as a human would receive in one therapeutic dose of warfarin," the statement read.

Overrun with feral hogs, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller is planning to fight dirty, using pesticide targeting the wild pigs to try to even the playing field. With a population of 2.5 million, the hogs cause about $50 million a year in damages to agriculture, plus untold damage to civilian backyards. Miller's solution? Warfarin-laced hog lure -- food laced with enough of the same drug used in rat poison to bring down a hog.

Most people taking warfarin for medical uses only take between 2 to 10 milligrams a day.

"Warfarin metabolizes and exits the body fairly quickly, so a hog that was trapped and fed for several days prior to processing would most likely not have any warfarin present at the time of slaughter," Miller's office wrote.

There will be a blue dye present in the hog's fatty tissue that will indicate ingestion of warfarin as well.

You can thank Spanish settlers for bringing feral hogs to North America centuries ago so they could reproduce and provide a food source.

Even though Kaput will now be the poison of choice for those plagued by hogs, don't expect hog hunting to lose any of its appeal in the state.

(c)2017 the Houston Chronicle

Caroline Cournoyer is GOVERNING's senior web editor.
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