Craig questions pig-kill operation
Kim Weishaar completes the journal as Jim Hergert provides the light during a night of deer hazing south of Sprague. The plastic box is used as a central location for the deer hazers to store tools used in the hazing effort.
Received the following from Gary Craig on Saturday, Aug. 6:
Dennis: You wrote on 8-5-16 in the Herald that Washington Wildlife agents were going to shoot feral hogs in the Desert Wildlife Area near Moses Lake. Why don’t they give out some tags and have a few hunters go out and shoot them instead of spending thousands of dollars for a helicopter pilot and a hunter to shoot them from the air? I know “one-shot” Dennis could bag a hog at 100 yards. Gary
Gary: Thanks for the vote of confidence. My hog-hunting experience includes shooting a charging Russian boar at 10 yards with one shot with a muzzleloader. Of course, one shot is all I had, but this is another story.
My first thought was the same as yours. I want to hunt them. However, after reading the explanation, Fish and Wildlife’s reasoning makes good reason.
It is a team from the U.S. Department of Agriculture who will shoot the pigs, not our Fish and Wildlife. Our ag community does not want or need an established herd of pigs in the Columbia Basin. These pigs need to be eradicated as soon as possible.
August was selected at the month for the kill, because the hot weather and buggy conditions keep people away from the Desert Unit. It is the month when there are fewer wildlife watchers anglers and hunters.
Good move on the part of Fish and Wildlife and the USDA.