As much as we dislike these destructive animals, it's a really bad idea to poison them, for so many reasons! IMO, the last thing we need is more poison in our environment!

Texas Hog Hunters Association has started a petition to stop the use of Warfarin based pesticide being used to kill feral hogs. You can sign it here: https://www.change.org/p/texas...

Too many unintended consequences will result! Poisoning the hogs will result in poisoning our important and necessary scavengers, from vultures and coyotes down to the carrion eating insects. Other wildlife may eat the poison. Cattle and other livestock may come in contact with the poison. Humans will unknowingly eat the poison.

Such a bad idea!

Agreed!

Plus, this poison slowly kills the animals over a week of bleeding and pain before their eventual demise.

Here's another article about it. https://www.washingtonpost.com...

I'm not a hunter but I fully favor THHA's position.

Pigs are very susceptible to warfarin. For that reason, Scimetrics developed a formula over the past 17 years that is both palatable to feral hogs and contains a low dose of 0.005% to reduce risk to other animals. The concentration in the bait is 1/5 of the concentration found in rodent baits. The EPA was provided with numerous studies over the past 20 years demonstrating the low risk of low-dose warfarin to domestic animals and wildlife.

Kaput Feral Hog Bait contains a fat-soluble dye. After hogs eat the bait, within 24 hours the internal fat is colored dark blue. A hunter who shoots a pig will know quickly if it ate the bait or not, and should avoid consuming the hog meat. Warfarin residues in hog livers are below 5 mg/kg. The average daily dose for humans on warfarin ranges between 2-10 mg.

Most people are unaware of potentially toxic chemicals in their daily diets. All chemicals can be toxic which is why scientists use the term 'DOSE MAKES THE POISON'. To measure how toxic chemicals are an international benchmark is used, termed LD-50 or lethal dose to kill 50% of the test animals, which is normally assessed in rats. It is determined in milligrams (mg) per kilogram (kg) of body weight. As an example, the LD-50 for aspirin is 200 mg/kg, Vitamin D3 37 mg/kg, and caffeine 192 mg/kg. The LD-50 for Kaput Feral Hog Bait is 60,000 mg/kg. This shows how the toxicity is very low compared to products used at home. In the US, some 40,000 people die each year from overdoses of aspirin and pain killers.

There is public concern over hog bait toxicity to other animals and wildlife. Laboratory studies with warfarin were performed using the bait, in all cases using 5-10 times the warfarin concentration of the hog bait. The results showed no effects to scavenging birds, ferrets, alligators, ducks, and bobwhite quail. The US EPA classifies warfarin as "practically non-toxic to birds".

How much Kaput Feral Hog Bait would be required to harm a turkey? For a 15.4-lb bird, 29 lbs of bait eaten daily for 19 days; bobwhite quail, 27.5 lbs of bait eaten daily; a 44-lb dog, 13.2 lbs a day for 5 days; an 880-lb steer would have to eat 3520 lbs daily for 5 days (A.P. Meehan 1984). The lower the dose of any chemical, the lower the risk. When a person uses Kaput Feral Hog Bait according to label instructions mandated by the EPA, the risk of harming other animals is greatly reduced.



SOURCE Scimetrics Ltd. Corp.

Warm welcome, Jake, and informative post. I am always a bit suspicious of info provided directly by the company, though. Any scientific studies done by non-biased folks?

@JakeW you are right most people are aware of toxic poison in their food, and a good many of us want it out. Unfortunately there is no way to effectively control the money hungry big pharma, Monsonto and FDA. That said...


I do know feral hogs are a problem and as bad as it seems, the best thing to do in my opinion is to shoot it. It's relatively fast and probably the most humane option at this point. Poisoning animals so that they lay around in terrible pain, bleeding, cramping, convulsing, and vomiting is flat out cruel. I have seen poisoning before and it is not humane in any way. A large animal can take days to die. Even people who think it is ok to kill animals for fun ('sport' they call it) know this is wrong.
And birds and fish are very susceptible to even small amounts. Did they do studies on the offspring? Or anything long term, or any studies they didn't fund themselves. Yes, I always find myself 'not guilty' when I am my own judge and jury.

We don't know what long term affects that can have..... kinda like just putting a little bit of poison in our food everyday... I mean the more I look at that the more ridiculous it sounds You make it sound like warfarin is harmless, it has bad side effects for many people, and they discontinue its use, ditto for many other prescriptions.

The tv is full of ads everyday for lawsuits for products the FDA 'promised' the public were perfectly harmless......

@wildflowers I signed your petition and shared it on my facebook.

I shared it with my daughter who lives in Tx.

Thank you for signing.

Hi Jake, and Welcome!

Welcome @JakeW

I appreciate the info you provided. I live on a cow farm and there are more and more feral hogs present. The new poison being proposed is a subject of interest to me and all the neighboring landowners as well as those in the recreational hunting industry. Implementation has been delayed for the time being, but hopefully that will give everyone time to absorb the pros and cons and arrive at a rational course of action. I'm not at all sure about the poison yet, but I've been aware a hog specific poison was in the works for some time now. I think TDA (Texas Dept. of Agriculture) and Texas A&M have been involved in the testing and formulation if I'm remembering correctly.

I think if hunting were a solution, it would have already brought the feral hog population under control. They are wily, clever animals without any natural predators. A classic invasive species, difficult to trap or hunt effectively.

Feral hogs can be a huge problem. Fortunately they only come by our place in NM several times a year. They dig huge holes and eat the roots of a lot of my plants and the native trees and bushes. I wish hunting would do it, but am afraid more is needed.

The west side of our property borders the Brazos River and its banks act as a hog freeway. The only way we have been able to minimize damage is by fencing that area with hog-resistant fencing which makes our pastures less available than those surrounding them. Not a solution to the hog problem just a defense.

I'm glad that helps, Porkpal. Being on the hog freeway wouldn't be good!

Here is a post about Kaput Feral Hog Bait and public studies written by W. Gardner Selby for Politifact Texas.
March 16th, 2017


It wont let me post the whole link... but add "http://" to the address below to see the webpage


politifact.com/texas/statements/2017/mar/16/will-herring/feral-hog-meat-businessman-says-there-are-no-publi/

Love that it's 'mostly true' . I guess the link is just too long to copy. But it was enough to get me there. Thanks again! @JakeW

Just heard the latest on the feral hog solution. Apparently it's ok to shoot them from helicopters but the copter noise alerts them. So this week, in it's infinite wisdom, the Texas legislature has made it legal to shoot the pigs from hot air balloons. I kid you not.

LOL! There are so many of those floating around here in my windy area of Texas .

I know some ballooners here and I would sincerely doubt they want folks with guns up in their hot air balloons. One misfire and the whole mess would crash amongst those hungry feral hogs.

Only in Texas...