Hog hunting bias in CA Safety Hunter Education?

[MrMullen]

I just completed my 10 hour California Hunter Safety education. While I learned a few things, the program was rather straight forward, I also learned that the state does not push Hog Hunting in the Hunter Education programs. This was something I could not figure out.
California does not want the hogs (They are feral and distructive), the hog population is growing and the number of hunters is decreasing. Through my entire 10 hour class and reading over all the material, I saw no information on Hog Hunting. I talked to the teacher and he gave me no information, and when I talked to few people, they knew nothing about hunting hogs. In fact, when you look through the pictures of animals you can hunt and not hunt in California, they have an picture of a Muskox and an American Alligator (There are no wild Alligators in this state!) but no Hogs! I was quite shocked.
With the price of Elk, Dear and other animals tags being expensive and in a lottery, it seems that California would be pushing Hog Hunting as the afordable hunting experience. Something that they could say, "Sorry you did not get that Elk tag, but you try Hog Hunting, it's just as fun and only $10!"

Anyone in other states have the same problem with their Hunter Education programs?

 

[DKScott]

With 90%+ of all hogs being taken on guided private land hunts at $400 or more just for the guide and access, its not all that affordable compared to the draw hunts. Even the POR is $300 and that's unguided.

 

[Kickaha]

I think there are some aligators in Buena Park down by Knotts Berry Farm. But that may be more for tourists than for hunters.

Other than having to follow a few basic CA guidelines, I would think that the direction of the classes is mostly decided by the individuals who teach them.

 

[LAgunman2K]

Kickaha -- i went to that gator farm in buena park when i was kid, neat place actually. but i believe they closed it down about a decage ago, maybe im wrong.

 

[CNCFixr]

MrMullen:
No mention of Hog hunting!!! That does not surprise me in the least. Our fearless leaders up in Sacramento don't want us to hunt, they don't want us to exercise our Second amendment rights either. We in Kalifornia, are the test tube for the other states as far as gun restrictions and limited hunting are concerned. I hope, after you got your hunter safety certificate you siged up with the NRA....they need us to the spread the word and send money to them when able. Anyway, JHP has many good forums to find out about hog hunting, also you can get some info for hog hunting from "Hog hunter Magazine"(www.outdoornewsservice.com/) hope this helps

CNCfixr

"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a deprivation of a constitutional privilege."

~Abraham Lincoln~

 

[IK13]

It's not the teacher. I was surprised as well when I wasn't able to find wild boar (there's javelina though

) in the "Wildlife Identification Pocket Guide"...And guess what - no black-tailed deer either.
So at least two of the most common species in this state are not in the "identification guide".

Give me a break - alligator, moose, caribou, muskox made it there.
Someone in DFG seems to have mixed the idea of making a CA game identification guide with Discovery Channel...

 

[shaginator]

I took a look at the hunter ed book from a friend last year, and the animal id section is the result of sheer laziness. They copied that section from a DFG agency somewhere in the east coast... I forget where, but they're credited somewhere in there in small print.

IIRC, there wasn't reference to mule or blacktail deer, but whitetails. The only quail illustrated was a Bobwhite, and no Mountain, Valley or Gambel's. In fact, there were very few California game species shown in that booklet.

As for the hog bias, I suppose it would be better to include something about California hogs. At the very least, include the info from their "Hunting Wild Pigs in California" booklet that was published a few years back.

However, to be honest the eradication program is doing quite well despite its abscence in the Hunter Safety curriculum -- on huntable public lands at least. (The problem is still a fast-growing concern on non-huntable public lands... heh).

In the meantime, game ranches are bringing in income from these ex-pests, and as a result, they're actually being regulated quite well on these private lands. Let's hope the DFG doesn't catch on to this...

 

[RIFLEMAN]

I don't share the opinion that the DFG wants feral hogs removed from our state entirely. If they did, they would not classify them as big game animals (being taken only at certain times of the day, with certain methods, with a certain limit of dogs, etc) and would model their management more after states like Texas where they are not considered a game animal, but rather, private property.

I think that the DFG for the most part sees hogs in a favorable light for two reasons:
*They are tremendous cash cow for the department. They initially wanted to implement the tag system in order to "gauge the population and distribution" of the hog and needed the nominal fee to pay for the study's administrative cost. Well, lo and behold if they have not only permanently established the tag system, but they raised the price.
*The growing hog population and good hunter success rates are good PR for the department; it takes away some of the negative spotlight placed on DFG for mismanaging our deer herds into near-oblivion.

 

[shaginator]

Rifleman, I think you got the business side of the story right with the DFG. The hot air I'm blowin' is probably more in line with the biology side of the DFG. I wouldn't be surprised there's debate within the department about what to do here.

That conflict also seems to coincide with the deer mismanagement story. Business side of DFG wants to issue tons and tons of tags... the biology side maybe wants to issue fewer to keep pressure off of zones. (The sheer number of tags issued for A and D3-5 seem a bit too high). That, of course, isn't the whole deer (mis)management story, I'm sure.

 

[BLASTMASTER]

A guy from work just took his hunter safety class and said they gave him all kinds of info and materials on pig hunting. I think it mostly has to do with the instructors and their personal hunting preferences.

 

[1SoCalHunter]

It seems that it would depend on the instructors, some will promote some types of hunting other don't. Also I have to agree that the CA DFG doesn't do the best job in printing hunting material.

 

[RIFLEMAN]

shaginator,

You raise a very good point about the potential conflict of interest within the DFG.


I think they calculate the number of deer tags based on the expected success rate. At the very least, they factor in the expected hunter success rate into the formula. The higher the success rate, the fewer the tags issued. The success rate for the D3-D5 zones is about 8% I think, so I figure that they aren't worried about issuing a large number of tags.