Saturday, October 12, 2013

Feral Hog Bounties: Some Texas Counties

A couple years back some Texas counties placed a bounty on feral hogs. These counties began giving small bounties on each hog killed by hunters or trappers to try and get more people to kill feral hogs and help reduce their numbers.


Hogs that were trapped and were
later processed. (Hays Co.)
Now some Texas counties are increasing the bounty for feral hogs.
Hayes and Caldwell Counties, in Central Texas, are offering a $5 bounty for each feral hog that is bagged by hunters. The fee is up $2 from last year.
Bastrop County is offering $5,per feral hog, for the first time.
Some counties that offer bounties require hunters to bring in proof of their harvest, like the tail or ear, to receive their bounty.


According to the Texas Agriculture Department feral hogs are responsible for $500 million in damages each year to crops, fences, roads, ponds, fields and feed loss.

Hunting hogs as well as trapping
is an effective way to reduce hog
populations (Hays Co)
It is obvious if we don't get a handle on the feral hog population Texas and other parts of the US will be over run with hogs as well as the destruction to property and other wildlife resources.

The program is funded by the Texas Department of Agriculture Hog Out County Grants Program. Other counties award points for hogs killed or trapped and prizes are awarded to the hunters/trappers.

Hogs at a feeder in East Texas
For more information of the Feral Hog Grant Program click this link.

To see if the county you live or hunt in participates in any "hog eradication" program should check with their County Agriculture Extension Agent.