Texas House Bill would allow hunting of feral pigs from helicopters
By Vince Leibowitz of Capitol Annex
Come on, everybody knows all you need is a 13-year-old and a pistol.
If you thought the legislative uproar surrounding online hunting in Texas a few years ago was something to behold, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
State Rep. Sid Miller (R-Stephenville) has filed a bill that would make it legal to hunt feral hogs–from a helicopter.
Yes, you read that right. House Bill 836 would allow Texas hunters to lock, load, and take off from the local airport or helipad to shoot feral hogs from the sky.
Setting aside logistical concerns (such as hitting power lines while chasing down a wild boar; making sure you’re shooting at a feral hog and not, say, a large labrador from a high altitude while flying at 175 miles per hour; or accidentally shooting up someone’s house, a propane tank or barn), there will be support for the bill because something is badly needed to help control the state’s feral hog population.
While the NRA and other pro-gun and hunting groups will probably applaud the bill (”Hey! We can shoot shit from a helicopter, Bubba!”) and animal rights groups will likely oppose the legislation, one has to wonder whether or not, in spite of all the pros of reducing the state’s wild hog population and cons that I’m sure animal rights groups will tell us about later, this is actually good public policy.
Setting aside the image of drunken hillbillies in a military surplus Huey shooting up the countryside that will come to mind when you think of this bill (and yes, everyone is going to think of that image no matter what their position is on any of this because, let’s face it, this is Texas) there are significant public safety concerns with something like this even with the most responsible of hunters and safest of pilots.
While the bill allows the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission to adopt rules to make sure chopper hog hunting is safe, the bill itself doesn’t restrict where hunting can occur, when hunting can occur (i.e., at night or during the day), or anything else. Leaving all of the finer points to the appointed members of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission–esteemed as they may be–leaves the door open for a lot of problems.
Just imagine that you live in a rural area that isn’t as sparsely populated as some out in West Texas only to be awoken night by a spotlight shining in your windows from overhead and bullets raining down on your large front yard only to step outside and see a 700 lb hog making its death rattle in your petunia bed. That’s not safe, but barring the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission banning night hunting, the use of spotlights, and people shooting hogs on property they do not own or have permission to hunt on from the air under the jurisdiction given to them in this bill, it could happen.
Let’s hope that, when this bill gets to committee, legislators give it the “is this good public policy” litmus test.
Shootin' Hogs From a Helicopter!
By Alexa Schirtzinger in News You Can Actually Use, ActuallyTuesday, Feb. 24 2009 @ 3:28PM
What we don't want, insists state Rep. Sid Miller, is "some Bubba flyin' around, sayin', 'Pass me the beer and the ammo!'" The District 59 rep's talking about his most recent proposal, H.B. No. 836, which calls for extending aerial hunting of feral hogs -- which currently is done only by Texas Wildlife Services -- to sport hunters. According to Mike Bodenchuk, USDA biologist and state director for Texas Wildlife Services, this means classifying the hogs as wildlife. (They're currently considered free-ranging exotic animals, meaning there are no restrictions on when they can be hunted, as long as the hunter has a license ... and is shooting from the ground.) That would put feral hogs under the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department's jurisdiction.
Miller, a Stephenville resident, says the inspiration for the bill came from his own, and his neighbors', experience. Whenever he went into town, people were talking about hog problems, Miller says, and he was starting to get calls about the issue. At his ranch, he saw the issue firsthand: "They've torn up my hay fields, they eat my feed, tear up my fences, destroy my crops ... They will completely destroy a peanut field!" (A 2004 study indicated a dramatic rise in East Texas's feral hog population.)
Miller says that since news of the proposed legislation started circulating last week, he's gotten hundreds of calls in favor of it. "I was shocked," Miller says. "I didn't know it would be received so well."
Part of that support probably has to do with the fact that feral hogs caused $52 million of agricultural damage in 2006 -- not to mention, Miller notes, the damage to urban infrastructure like parks and golf courses. "Probably the biggest financial damage," Miller speculates, "is vehicular damage. If you hit one of those 300-pound [hogs], it's gonna demolish the front end of your car!"
Bodenchuk says he's concerned about the burden of regulation on aerial sport hunting. Beyond permits, how will the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department control who's out there shooting, and how much training they have? Does the agency even have the resources to regulate that? Further, if hogs are designated as "wildlife," then people may only be able to hunt them in a certain season. Bodenchuk reminds us, however, that there are 2 million feral hogs in the state of Texas, and that they're a big problem.
"Anybody who's removing feral hogs is a friend of mine. I'm in favor of recreational hunters shooting them," Bodenchuk says. "I am concerned with them doing it from the air. Untrained people with guns on aircraft? There's a lot of parts of airplanes you're not supposed to shoot."
Texas may let hunters shoot pigs from choppers
81R4826 SLB-D
By: Miller of Erath H.B. No. 836
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to sport hunting of feral hogs by helicopter.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 62.003, Parks and Wildlife Code, is
amended by amending Subsection (a) and adding Subsection (c) to
read as follows:
(a) Except as provided in Subsection (b) or (c), no person
may hunt any wild bird or wild animal, other than an alligator,
frog, or turtle, from any type of aircraft or airborne device, motor
vehicle, powerboat, or sailboat, or from any other floating device.
(c) Feral hogs may be hunted from a helicopter. The
commission shall adopt rules governing hunting permitted by this
subsection to ensure safety.
SECTION 2. As soon as practicable after the effective date
of this Act, the Parks and Wildlife Commission shall adopt rules to
implement Section 62.003(c), Parks and Wildlife Code, as added by
this Act.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2009.
We are now certified by the Texas Parks and Wildlife to conduct game surveys of your land
