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Thursday, February 9, 2017

What we've got here is a failure to communicate

PETA insists that all hunting is bad. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, it would appear that wild pigs are fucking things up pretty much everywhere, environmentally speaking:
Feb. 2 (UPI) -- Wild invasive pigs are wreaking havoc on North American ecosystems, a new report warns.
"Feral swine cause major damage to property, agriculture (crops and livestock), native species and ecosystems, and cultural and historic resources," Gail Keirn, a public affairs specialist with the National Wildlife Research Center, told PLOS ONE.
The National Wildlife Research Center, NWRC, is the research arm of the Wildlife Services program, part of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, a USDA agency.
"This invasive species also threatens the health of people, wildlife, pets, and other domestic animals," Keirn said. "As feral swine populations continue to expand across the country, these damages, costs, and risks will only keep rising."
Apparently, the problem springs from a combination of feral pigs, which used to be raised for food but escaped, wild board introduced for hunting purposes, and hybrids of the two from interbreeding. And yeah, they aren't going away:
The largest wild pig populations are found in the South, but a team of scientists led by Nathan Snow found the pigs have been moving northward at a clip of 4 to 8 miles per year. In 30 to 50 years, Snow and his colleagues predict, wild pigs could be found living in all 50 states and every county in the country. Their conquest could happen even quicker if boars introduced into Canada continue to move southward.
Wild pigs reproduce quickly and often, eat nearly anything and can survive in a variety of habitats. They also have no natural predators.
Nothing is killing them except us. Enter the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals:
Although it was a crucial part of humans’ survival 100,000 years ago, hunting is now nothing more than a violent form of recreation that the vast majority of hunters do not need for subsistence.1 Hunting has contributed to the extinction of animal species all over the world, including the Tasmanian tiger and the great auk.2,3
Less than 5 percent of the U.S. population (13.7 million people) hunts, yet hunting is permitted in many wildlife refuges, national forests, and state parks and on other public lands.4 Almost 40 percent of hunters slaughter and maim millions of animals on public land every year, and by some estimates, poachers kill just as many animals illegally.
By all means, read the whole thing about how evil hunting is, and read the other report on the damage caused by wild pigs, who have no curb on their population if we don't hunt them. Then ask yourself if this is the problem with PETA:


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