On kind a kind of related notes, I have some feral pigs who ocassionally roam through some property I have out in Madison county. An uncle who owns some adjoining property wants to shoot some and get some feral pork chops out of the deal, but I suspect they're probably too parasite ridden and potentially diseased to be safe to eat. They are horribly destructive, and I was thinking about seeing how many I can kill and leave for the buzzards, but a friend of mine has told me that that's not safe either and that what I need to do is build a pyre and immolate the carcasses of any swine that I kill.
It does have a vaguely "Lord of the Flies" (a novel by William Golding, NOT Beelzebub) feel to it, doesnt it?
What's really disturbing are the idiots who released them into the wild in the first place. Supposedly the rationale behind this illegal and (I would argue) immoral practice is that it provides 1) meat and 2) sport. The problem with the feral swine meat is that it is so potentially disease and parasite ridden that the field guides say that you're supposed to wear heavy rubber gloves while field dressing and/or butchering them. The problem with the "sport" aspect is that these hogs are slow-moving, kind of stupid, and blind relative to their wild kin--actively hunting them would be like shooting fish in a barrel. Not a very "sporting" proposition at all if you ask me. And then something has to be done with the carcasses...
I probably won't actually do anything to them myself as I am--I'm ashamed to say--kind of sqeamish, but I do feel kind of irresponsible for not doing something.
Ah, the joys of rurual property... with any luck, maybe the black bears in the vicinity will kill and eat them all. :-\
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Mmmm...bacon. ;-)
On kind a kind of related notes, I have some feral pigs who ocassionally roam through some property I have out in Madison county. An uncle who owns some adjoining property wants to shoot some and get some feral pork chops out of the deal, but I suspect they're probably too parasite ridden and potentially diseased to be safe to eat. They are horribly destructive, and I was thinking about seeing how many I can kill and leave for the buzzards, but a friend of mine has told me that that's not safe either and that what I need to do is build a pyre and immolate the carcasses of any swine that I kill.
Matthew, that is kind of disturbing.
It does have a vaguely "Lord of the Flies" (a novel by William Golding, NOT Beelzebub) feel to it, doesnt it?
What's really disturbing are the idiots who released them into the wild in the first place. Supposedly the rationale behind this illegal and (I would argue) immoral practice is that it provides 1) meat and 2) sport. The problem with the feral swine meat is that it is so potentially disease and parasite ridden that the field guides say that you're supposed to wear heavy rubber gloves while field dressing and/or butchering them. The problem with the "sport" aspect is that these hogs are slow-moving, kind of stupid, and blind relative to their wild kin--actively hunting them would be like shooting fish in a barrel. Not a very "sporting" proposition at all if you ask me. And then something has to be done with the carcasses...
I probably won't actually do anything to them myself as I am--I'm ashamed to say--kind of sqeamish, but I do feel kind of irresponsible for not doing something.
Ah, the joys of rurual property...
with any luck, maybe the black bears in the vicinity will kill and eat them all. :-\
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