Hogs for the homeless

[TEXASLAWMAN]

Harris county is going to start feeding the hungry with trapped wild hogs.


http://news.yahoo.com/texas-county-feed-feral-hogs-homeless-192135479--abc-news-topstories.html

 

[Wassman]

There are going to do this right down the street from my work. George Bush park is located right next to a very rich part of town and the people there are complaining about pigs tearing up their yards.

I want to know who is paying for these giant metal traps.

 

[Guess]

I'm curious to see how it works out myself. I can't tell you how many people tell me they want meat and then when it's cut up and in the cooler they wont come get it. I have a cooler right now setting out in the back forty full of rancid meat. Oh I promise I'll come get it, tomorrow. So I sat it out and forgot about it till something started stinking. Now they avoid me like they owe me money! CRAZY DANG PEOPLE!@

 

[TEXASLAWMAN]

It says in the article the county is paying for it and also paid $200k+ to a processor. So the meat will be processed packed and shipped to the county shelters.

 

[Brian Shaffer]

On Tuesday, the commissioner's Office signed a one-year contract with the processors for $217,600, according to the AP. The county estimates in that year it will be able to eliminate roughly 2,500 hogs, which will each produce around 40 pounds of meat.

So we are looking at $2.17 lb for processing alone (assuming they get all 2500 pigs this year). Add in salaries, benefits, equipment, vehicle wear and tear, program administration, permits, etc., for the procuring, storing (maybe), and transporting of the feral hogs and they are going to be paying way over wholesale per pound than if they just bought commercial pig products at wholesale prices to provide for the hungry.

https://www.porkretail.org/filelibrary/2014_0502.pdf

In other words, the program will not be cost effective. As a result and despite best intentions, it will fail because it will be fiscally untenable.

 

[Guess]

well duh! the government is involved!

 

[FrankT]

With pork prices doubling from the commercial market due to the virus killing piglets is may actually be cheaper w feral hogs.

 

[Brian Shaffer]

Maybe Frank, but right now at current prices as of 3 days ago, the processing fee alone is more than the wholesale price of commercial pork. Some cuts are higher, but across the board and averaged, Harris County would save $ if they just purchased commercial meat for the hungry. They could feed the same number for less money or feed more people for the same amount.

 

[FrankT]

Typical government

 

[BigRedDog]

no way they will get 2500 pigs doing it the way they plan

not gonna happen

 

[Chopperdrvr]

Brian, what you are forgetting is that if they pay for the meat, they won't appease the rich people who are complaining about the hogs tearing up their lawns. It isn't about providing meat for the homeless, its about kissing up to the people who fund their election campaigns.

 

[Itsazonik]

I had read a story a few years ago that the same thing was tried in southern florida and had the same result. It was deemed too expensive. Why can't they just do it like all the places that take in deer during hunting season? There are so many places that hunters can turn in their animals and processors usually cut it up for free and then give it all away

 

[Wassman]

I had read a story a few years ago that the same thing was tried in southern florida and had the same result. It was deemed too expensive. Why can't they just do it like all the places that take in deer during hunting season? There are so many places that hunters can turn in their animals and processors usually cut it up for free and then give it all away

Because these parks are strictly no hunting areas and they are locked by urban areas. In fact I think they are in the city limits. Here is a where they plan to do this. Both parks north and south of I-10.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/George Bush Park/@29.7141706,-95.6517036,12z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x8ceedd50375c2ab9

They did allow some archery in there to help the hog problem, but we all know that archers cannot be effective. Plus from my understanding there was quite the lengthy permit process just to get in. Bottom line is these pigs are getting in the surrounding neighborhoods and now they see this is the only way to rid the problem. The feed the homeless spin is just a way to justify spend big dollars for pest control that the county will pay for to make the rich happy. My tax dollars could be spend much better. I think they should have put a trapping bounty on these pigs and let the guys who know how to trap take care of it. Instead of putting up over a quarter million for giant traps that will not eliminate the problem.

We all know that trapping is a art and you have to change you game plan constantly and just putting up 4 acre traps to get all the pigs is not going to work. They will eventually learn not to go in and you will only catch the pigs that haven't learned to enter these traps. So the older pigs will still roam these parks and once the county runs out of money and terminates the project the pigs that are still roaming and now educated not to enter traps will repopulate their numbers. So I see this as just throwing money away atleast with a bounty you can keep trapping for much longer since there isn't such a big expense to get trapping and county man power will be greatly reduced since all the county needs to set up some admin for issuing permits and a collection station.

 

[Brian Shaffer]

Brian, what you are forgetting is that if they pay for the meat, they won't appease the rich people who are complaining about the hogs tearing up their lawns. It isn't about providing meat for the homeless, its about kissing up to the people who fund their election campaigns.

Yeah, that is partially how Dallas got its program. It was one of the City Council members who had a problem in her lawn (back yard, I believe) that really spurred on the effort. The goober they hired was apparently a 3 year $300k contract. There has been considerable controversy about his methods and results. I do believe that Dallas got fleeced.

no way they will get 2500 pigs doing it the way they plan
not gonna happen

Since the processing is a contracted amount, I am betting the processor gets paid whether they get hogs or not.

This article says money was allocated to buy panels to build 4, count them, 4 whole traps.

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/new...t-feral-hog-plan-will-put-food-on-5422647.php

The money came from a grant that was for $630K including a water quality/hog study, the traps, and the processor. In short, the only way the hungry are getting fed is because the feds are footing the bill.

I thought it sounded naïve that they are building 4, 4 acre sized traps that will serve dual duty as storage areas as well, that will have plenty of food and water. This is sounding more and more like a bad idea.

 

[BigRedDog]

There are going to do this right down the street from my work. George Bush park is located right next to a very rich part of town and the people there are complaining about pigs tearing up their yards.

I want to know who is paying for these giant metal traps.

you are, and I am

 

[TEXASLAWMAN]

Yeah, that is partially how Dallas got its program. It was one of the City Council members who had a problem in her lawn (back yard, I believe) that really spurred on the effort. The goober they hired was apparently a 3 year $300k contract. There has been considerable controversy about his methods and results. I do believe that Dallas got fleeced..

The goober they hired got fired. He was a scam artist. I met him through a game warden buddy of mine. Next thing I know hes going around telling everyone that he is working with the game warden and myself. Had a short little talk with him and it has not happened again.

 

[Brian Shaffer]

I did not realize that they fired him. I have a naturalist friend in Dallas who had been keeping me up on some of his antics, but she had not mentioned that he was finally fired. At the Predator and Hog Expo, I was hugely disappointed to see his name mentioned at the end of the Jaeger Pro talk as a local vendor/distributor for their system and that the speaker spoke positively of the guy.

I think this is the last I heard of him...
http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2014/03/dallas_feral_hogs_trap_trapper.php

Getting back to Harris County's issues, I will be interested to hear how well the stationary giant traps work over time. At 4 acres in size, if square, each trap is going to need over 1670 feed of panels, or about 84 panels (assuming 20 feet long) and a lot of T-posts.

So basically, they are building barnyards that are traps.

 

[FrankT]

You guys know how crazy that large a trap sounds, you would need 10 or more doors to be effective? They trying to catch all 2500 hogs at one time???lol

 

[Brian Shaffer]

Not at once, LOL. They will have 4 whole 4 acre traps, apparently placed at different reservoirs. No doubt they will be after large numbers, like getting whole sounders at a time, but unless you have multiple sounders using the same area, the trap is going to have to be broken down, moved, and set up anew for the next sounder that is operating in some nearby area. So you would unwire all the 86 panels, stack and load. Then pull up several hundred T-posts and then rebuild.

Yeah, I think you would need a lot of doors as well, plus the ability to close all at once, which you can do with cell phones, but if one doesn't close, then it won't work and the more doors you have, the more likely you are to have malfunctions.

Texts are not always instant, is the problem, and electronic maps like what Jaeger Pro sells rely on a text signal to close the trap. If you have some doors close, but one or two that are delayed more than a few seconds for some reason because of signal routing, queuing, etc., then you have likely have problems because of freaked out escapees. Maybe they have a solution for this?

This should be interesting to watch. The program started May 1 (at least for the processor) and I guess trapping should start in the next week or so.

 

[FrankT]

I am thinking this will not turn out as they are hoping.