Nate Myers
Nate Myers is the national field coordinator for CFACT’s collegians program.
On Saturday, CFACT president Craig Rucker traveled to Houston to take part in a wild boar hunt with five collegians from Sam Houston University. The event was designed to showcase how hunting is an important conservation tool utilized by wildlife officials to manage the Lone Star State’s burgeoning feral pig population.
Staged near Groveton,TX, at a private hunting grounds called “Boars All Day,” Rucker and the students headed out to blinds where they waited for pigs to meander by. They didn’t have to wait long. Within three hours, everyone in attendance had landed bacon.
“It was really an awesome event, and it couldn’t have gone better” noted CFACT Collegian chapter leader Nicolas Walker. “Our students really enjoyed themselves, and I think it inspired them to be part of our program here at Sam Houston. We’re very grateful Mr Rucker came and joined us so we could learn more of CFACT’s history and conservation philosophy, which is very different than what we hear from our leftist professors in academia.”
After their coolers were packed full of fresh meat, not wanting to leave any to waste, Craig and the students donated the several remaining hogs harvested on the hunt to Chi Alpha Ministries, a local non-profit dedicated to feeding those less fortunate.
Texas is estimated to have around 2.6 million feral hogs, which is nearly half of the US population of the species, and they are found in 253 of Texas’s 254 counties. Feral hogs cause an estimated $500 million in damage annually in Texas to agriculture, property, and native ecosystems, according to studies cited by Texas Wildlife Services and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension.
Hunting, especially in conjunction with other control methods like trapping, is a key tool in Texas to curb feral pig populations. Hunters contribute to the removal of a significant number of hogs, especially during deer seasons.
This article was originally published on CFACT.
