Proposed OK Legislation On Feral Hogs
 

Members of the OK house of representatives have proposed a bill that would require the killing of captured feral swine.

Selling live wild hogs is a booming business in parts of OK. Hog doggers and hog trappers haul live hogs to processors in Dallas, TX in violation of federal law. They also sell live feral hogs to "hunting ranches".

HB 1104:

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HB 1104 requires feral swine to be killed upon capture and prohibits importation of live feral swine, except by order of the state veterinarian. The measure prohibits new licenses for sporting facilities for feral swine. Feral swine that are transported to an existing sporting facility must be castrated; female feral swine must killed upon capture.

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Also proposed is a bill that would allow the hunting of wild hogs at night with the aid of a light.

HB 1068:

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HB 1068 allows for nighttime hunting and headlighting of feral swine on private land, provided the hunter has permission from the landowner and has registered with the Department of Wildlife Conservation.

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I am against the illegal transport of feral hogs, no doubt, but I am not sure that the first law really deals with the issue in a good way. I am not sure why OK can't have feral hog facilities like Texas, but I guess that would be more complicated.

The second part, 1068, is MUCH better.

There is one huge problem here in OK: Slobs are still releasing hogs into the wild. Recently there was a case in Beaver county where a guy brought in diseased wild hogs from eastern OK. Beaver county has very few, if any, wild hogs. That guy was also staging hog vs dog fights.

Feral hogs are in the domain of the OK Dep't of Agriculture; not the game warden. They are having one hell of a time enforcing OK law as pertains to wild hogs.

Several years ago some guy trapped 200-300 wild hogs and had them in a big enclosure west of the wildlife refuge. Someone called the OK Dep't of agriculture: OK Ag came and tested those hogs and found nearly every hog disease known to man. Result: The guy stopped feeding and watering the hogs. Hogs were starving and dying until the neighbors cut the fences and released the hogs.

i own hunting properties on both sides of I-35. There were no hogs on either of those places until a hog hunting "ranch" opened shop. That guy claimed to have 10,000 acres of land leased for his hunters. In fact he had no land leased. He simply released hogs all over the place: Then turned his hunters loose to trespass on private lands, including mine.

i hope the OK legislature hangs tough on this one.

The reason is that sooner, rather than later, some will escape. If you have ever raised hogs, you quickly learn that they will destroy most everything a person builds, including fences. I don't live in OK, but have friends that do. I have trapped coyote, bobcat there in the past. Ranchers are glad to have you. What I can't understand is all the complaints about hogs, yet nearly impossible to get an invite to hunt them :confused2:

Honestly it's because there have been so many problems with people hunting on lands and destroying private property. Not to mention lawsuits where some idiot twists his/her ankle and sues the landowner. People are just getting too leery of letting anyone on their property, especially with a firearm. It's sad.

The OK House AG Committee gutted their bill with an amendment. They bowed to the demands of the hog doggers, hog trappers and hog ranches. Back to business as usual.

Super hunt, I don't know the state you are from but PA has a law that protects landowners from lawsuits if their land is open to hunting without charge. Someone steps in a groundhog hole or gets injured by another hunter, the landowner is protected.

Same here. Up until money changes hands, the landowner is legally protected from lawsuit by hunters and trespassers. That said, there are those slobs that mess it up for everyone. Then there are those that want to P&M about the hogs, but deny responsible parties access to hunting them. That is of course, unless you will grease their palm with an exhorbitant amount of $$$$ I also agree about the dogs!

Many farmers and ranchers in OK lease out their land to deer hunters. Sadly, most deer hunters don't kill hogs.

Wild hogs from OK have also migrated north into CO a few years ago. They were turning up along the river bottoms, especially in Kiowa County. CO immediately passed a law that basically said nobody can profit from wild hogs. This means that farmers cannot charge to hunt them. Funny thing is, when they can't profit from them, they got them pretty much shot out in short order. A few still show up once in awhile, but they get popped as soon as someone sees them. Last thing they need in CO is the hogs getting really established.