This Little Piggie Went to Market; This Little Piggie Stayed Home

Wild hogs are a big problem around these parts.  They get in rice fields and cause major crop damage. They root up people's yards.  They cause erosion problems and some carry disease.  When landowners have had enough, they set up traps and catch them in order to eradicate them from their property.

Saturday morning we got a call that some wild hogs had been captured in a trap and needed to be killed.  My boys jumped at the chance.  They got their .22 rifles and we loaded up and made the 10 minute drive to where the wild hogs were trapped.  The trap consists of an automatic feeder that throws out corn in order to attract them.  The trap itself is made of livestock panels wired together in a circle and reinforced with t-posts.  There is a gate that can be dropped once the hogs are inside the trap.

Little pigs running around in the trap

The sow and all 10 of her little piglets were running around in the trap when they saw us coming. The first thing you want to do is put the momma pig down.  The boys took aim with their .22 rifles and brought her down with a hit between the eyes.  Then the little pigs were killed.

The other white meat

It may seem cruel to some to kill these hogs, but the wild hog population is out of control.  In fact, in Louisiana, according to THIS PUBLICATION, feral hogs are considered unregulated quadrapeds and may be taken year-round during legal daylight shooting hours.  You can shoot them at night under certain conditions.

When the shooting stopped, Russ and Benjamin had killed one sow and 10 piglets. It doesn't take long to realize why the feral hog population is growing exponentially. Look at the 10 pigs below. Let's say half of them were female.  The females reach sexual maturity at 6 months of age and have 2 litters per year of up to 10 piglets per litter.  Wow!  So if five of the pigs below were female and each have two litters of 10 piglets, after 1 year those five piglets could have produced 100 piglets that are now producing!  Most all of them survive since there are virtually no natural predators. Yikes!!

We did our part by reducing the population of hogs in our area and the boys had a good time doing it. The trouble is, there are a lot more hogs out there.  As hogs are hunted, stalked by dogs, and trapped, many of them become very wise and are reluctant to go near traps.  They are smart animals and some are next to impossible to catch and kill.

At least we got these shown in the photo above and Benjamin's 'trophy' shot below. This made Benjamin's day!

We estimated the sow Benjamin killed to weigh around 130 pounds.  The meat was given away and likely made a nice batch of sausage.