'Splain something to me, please.

[BelchFire]

I'm not from Kali, so I may need to be enlightened. Aren't hogs considered an invasive species and a destruction to the environment in California?

If so, wouldn't DFG want them to be eradicated? If so, why do you have to buy tags? Oh, I well understand the need for cash flow through DFG, but if they want hogs gone, I see a tag as an impediment to that end. Most GA wildlife refuges that I'm aware of encourage you to shoot all the hogs you can and they'll tag them after the fact. Wouldn't that be a better (environmental) solution for California?

 

[bisonic]

You expect logic?

As I understand it, originally the DFG sold tags cheap (pack of 5 or something for just a few bucks) to encourage hunters to report their kills so they could get a picture of the extent that hogs had established themselves in the state. That ended sometime in the mid '90s or so, with individual tags sold thereafter.

Hogs are a real pain in the state, but in a different manner than they are in Tx and other states. Here they cause a lot of erosion and compete with other species, but they don't cause the extreme crop damage that they do elsewhere. To the degree they affect landowners, it's easy to get a depredation permit (unlimited take, no tags, trapping and night hunting allowed). So it's not as much of an economic issue in the state, and (believe it or not) money sometimes drives policy.

Given the cost of hunting and (IMHO) need to support the DFG's enforcement efforts (heavily strained and arguably losing the poaching battle on several fronts), a $20 tag isn't really an issue.

 

[ltdann]

Hogs are considered a game animal here. When I bought my first pig tag is was $9 for a book of 5, now they're a little over $20. As bisonic said, they don't cause the extreme crop damage as in other states. Believe it or not CA has ALOT of BIG ranches, lots of wide open public land and there's not enough hogs to be a huge concern yet.

Alot of what you see on the TV show and movies (hog wild, pig bomb etc) is a lot of crap, dramitized to the extreme in order boost ratings and does not reflect conditions, hogs and hog hunting in CA.

There's alot of hunting pressure on hogs here. Its the only species open year around so they get hammered pretty regular. If you see a hog during daylight hours, your doing good.

 

[easymoney]

You have answered your own questions, it's not about stopping an invasive non native species it is about money. Many of us older guys used to hunt them without buying any tags and with the blessing of many ranchers who grew barley or oats. Today with many of the ranches growing wine grapes they complain but do not allow any hunting anymore. And the price for a single tag is approaching the cost of deer tags, so DFG must making some good money on them.
We see them regularly around the edges of town, and the local TV station even did a spot on a huge boar photographed just a block over from my home last week, that supposedly chased a neighbor. Warden Tognazinni was interviewed and said there is a growing population.

 

[BigSurArcher]

Whats a pig tag?

 

[myfriendis410]

As stated above; California has a different set of challenges when it comes to hogs. There is a pretty high mortality of piglets due to the heavy chaparral and coyotes rampant, there is a lot of hunting pressure, the feeding areas are more open so hogs can be spotted, poor rainfall can knock their numbers back, etc. There are areas that have an awful problem like the Salinas area; at one time the city of Salinas had three full time hunters on staff to keep the hogs out of the broccoli fields.

Down here where I hunt, we have regular hunting pressure that keeps the hog numbers down and also makes them respect/fear a human presence.

By all means; kill 'em in the South where they are doing so much damage. Here though, it's a different story.

 

[jerryt]

Whats a pig tag?

Someone is just trying to stir the pot a little!

 

[RoosterKiller]

In California pigs are considered an envaisive money generator.

 

[slanttop357]

Whats a pig tag?

Dude its when one little :hog chewing: sniffs the rear of another little :hog chewing: then they try to catch each other, yes. ig-laughing:

 

[WildlifeBranch]

quicky response is that when pigs were made a "big game" it was a long time ago in statute and they were not spread as widely as they are today.

Statute requires legislation to change, regulations only require DFG and Commission involvement. So far, no legislator has sponsored legislation to take away game mammal status for wild pigs, but it is not unforseeable.

As mentioned, pigs are hit pretty hard on public lands, some private lands use them as a money maker while others try to whack-n-stack to eliminate them. Regulations allow year round, no daily bag limit. Marc might want to add more, but I hope he is working on bear stuff.

 

[dkhuntr25]

sadly its gonna get to the point where some people just say f it cuz its gonna get so damn expensive people will just stop hunting.

 

[Fugaloo]

In other states, they do more damage than the crops they destroy could pay for. Here, a guide service will pay thousands of dollars a year to shore up the access. So the net loss created by them is offset by the gains from hunting guides. Coupled with high fences for vineyards which cover the landscape, the hog "problem" is only a problem to the ranchers, farmers, and land owners who haven't sold their rights to guides who charge up to $1000 per pig. With the low percentage of people here who hunt, the guides make a killing because it is just plain hard to get access in California. Only poo flows down hill, money flows uphill. And of course the state wants to get their cut too. Also, who would really stop buying tags if the price doubled, or even tripled. The tag is hardly the investment made in hunting, the real money is in the gear.

 

[bigboarstopper]

The whole tag thing is pointless anyway. A person needs to send the tag in to dfg in order for them to get any data. If 75% of the successful hunters send in their tags they are 25% off on their statistics of of actual harvested pigs. I would bet that the returned tags are much less than 75% anyway. If I had to guess I would bet less than 50% are returned. Regardless, if hogs are considered a game animal by statute there is still no reason to charge 20 bucks a tag. Its revenue, pure and simple.

In terms of damage to agriculture, Look at the spinach industry. The recalled e coli spinach cost the farmers and distributors tremendous amounts of money. This effect has caused the dept of AG to quarrantine thousands of acres of crop a year because of hog tracks or scat in a field costing the farmer more money in lost revenue. Now the farmers are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars erecting 6' tall deer fences around thousands of acres to prevent any animals from leaving any tracks through their fields costing them even more money. Its not the hogs causing the farmers lots of money anymore. Its regulation thats killing them.

In the last few years the cost of a pig tag has gone from 7 dollars for a book of 5 to 20 dollars for a single tag. Im terrible at math so could somone tell me what percentage increase that is per tag???? 1000%?????? Lead ammo has turned into copper and the cost has tripled. If this trend continues hunting will be a wealthy mans sport like in europe.

From my point of view as a guide, I dont want it to get anymore expensive for a client. A client already has to spend roughly a 100 bucks on a hog tag and ammo before they even show up not including fuel costs to get here and the annual hunting licence. The more these costs rise the less clients I will have. And trust me, the quality of the clientele I have will fall. Wild pig hunting has, and always should be the working mans big game animal.

 

[buccwylde]

If expense goes up for hunting pigs or any other animal then poaching goes up. I learned that in my high school economics class. More problems down the road.

 

[Huntr Pat]

you bet!

 

[Huntr Pat]

Someone is just trying to stir the pot a little!

you bet

 

[DFG_Bear]

It's my understanding (being relatively new to the DFG) that the pig tag increased due to an apparent disparity between the cost of a pig tag versus the rest of the big game species' tags. The DFG was not aware of the fee increase when it happened. The administration of the time was trying to generate additional revenue for the State general fund, but to their chagrin, they did not realize that the revenue from pig tags were deposited into a fund that can only be used for wild pigs (not the general fund). Despite our efforts to reduce the fee for a pig tag, they remain where they are.

Eric nailed it above when he said pigs are a money maker for private landowners, and others have also alluded to it in this thread. Because of that, I'm not too sure we'll see legislation that will remove their big game status.

-Marc (back to work on bear stuff).

 

[527varmint]

The tags are cheap as heck. GAS MONEY is the main cost. The lead free ammo is also crazy as it is over 2 dollars a shot for hog size calibers.I'm thinking the lead ban must have reduced the number of people hunting in the condor areas. I know I shy away from the lead free zone to hunt coyote.