I did not need to read the details of how two dogs and a hunter corner and kill a wild pig [“A Plague of Pigs”]. And the fact that people are permitted to shoot any animal from a helicopter turns my stomach.
John Gorman
Cambria, California
Let Them Eat Pork
What’s to be done with the millions of wild pigs ruining farmers’ fields [“A Plague of Pigs”]? Give pork to poor people who cannot afford to buy meat. The pigs can be butchered into portions and taken to food banks. We have a similar program in Virginia called Hunters for the Hungry. White-tailed deer shot for sport are donated, butchered, packaged and distributed at a very low cost. Good wildlife management means more meat for dinner. Please pass the pork chops.
Elin Larson
Purcellville, Virginia
One of the main reasons for the relatively rapid expansion of the hog population in Texas is that 300 million pounds of shelled corn are distributed annually across most of the state to enhance hunting opportunities, primarily for deer. This high-energy food supply plays a large part in supplementing the diet of wild hogs, contributing to increasing growth rates, bolstering reproduction and otherwise ensuring a healthy hog population. Florida, where I live and work as a wildlife biologist, has the second- or third-highest wild hog population in the nation, but baiting with corn is less widespread and this is reflected in lower rates of pig reproduction. Baiting has become more common in some states in the past few decades, and when wild hogs are also present, land managers—and others—will have to deal with the voracious creatures.
Bill Frankenberger
Gainesville, Florida
The New South
In my kind of town [“Hallowed Ground”], Ernest B. Furgurson touches on the pain and suffering of the slaves brought against their will to this country. He also remarks that things have “changed.” But in some regions of the South, Confederate sympathies are still apparent. Several Southern states observe a Confederate Memorial Day celebration glossing over the role slavery played in secession; in Texas a few years ago, some suggested the state secede again, and more recently a Southern politician said he did not recall the era of segregation as being “that bad.” Let us not forget that the secession of states from the Union and the formation of the Confederacy was indeed about states’ rights and, from the antebellum South’s perspective, that included the right to allow one human being to own another.
Mark Digennaro
Camillus, New York
Presidential Power
I disagree with historian Robert Dallek’s statement that we should not want to “inhibit” presidential executive power “to too great an extent” [From the Editor, “Powers That Be”]. The great erosion of Congressional power commenced more than a century ago. Since then the increase in presidential powers and government secrecy has grown far beyond what many citizens consider acceptable, especially when it comes to wars that have not been formally declared by Congress. Witness, among many others, the wars in Korea and Vietnam, the invasions of Grenada and Panama, and the ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. The power vested in Congress to declare war (Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution) should be revived at the earliest opportunity.
Jose Gonzalez Jauregui
Houston, Texas
False Image
Regarding the story about Edward Steichen’s iconic photograph of John Pierpont Morgan [Indelible Images, “Cutthroat Capitalist”], for which I was interviewed, I would like to clarify my views about the man and the photograph. Steichen’s image reinforces long-standing popular myths about Morgan as a ruthless capitalist pirate, especially given that the glinting arm of a chair grasped in the banker’s left hand looks like a dagger. Although I greatly admire the portrait, I do not endorse the “cutthroat capitalist” myth, as any reader of my book, Morgan, American Financier, will see.
Jean Strouse
New York, New York
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Comments (1)
I found the comments on the Hog problem in Texas interesting.
I live in the Texas Hill Country outside of Kerrville. The area is largely rocky, rough and Cedar covered. In the years that I've been here, I've killed fewer than a dozen hogs. Of those, I only butchered less than half, either because of their parasites, or they were rangy boars. One boar was so bad the the buzzards would not touch it. The main reasons I've been unable to get more is that they tend to be nocturnal feeders and can disappear into thick brush very fast, so you may get one or two out of several. It's difficult to "happen" on them anyway as they have excellent senses.
As to hunting from helicopters, the money would be better spent setting out the large live traps. I've seen where some trappers take them to pens and feed and domesticate them a bit, then off to market. Other times, they haul them to a game ranch to be turned lose and become a problem again.
As to butchering them for the poor: first you have to kill the hogs, second, they have to be worth butchering, third, you have to have facilities and experienced butchers. It's not an easy task and many a hunter has spoiled the meat by a badly placed shot or improper gutting.
Finally, the fellow who suggested the rapid growth was due in part to the use of too much corn to bait feeders during deer season. I would tend to agree that that is a factor. I've seen hunters put out so much corn at all hours of the day and night that it's not even good for the deer or their hunt. For all the folks that have submitted comments, I'd say you should be in some of these folks shoes here for awhile and see some of the problems first hand. The loss of stock, loss of wildlife, loss of pets, destruction of crops, etc., before you judge too harshly. After all, Texas isn't the only place that has the problem. Check out Hawaii.
Posted by Bruce Mergele on March 1,2011 | 08:25 PM