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“Water destined for 3,000 thirsty farms burst through an irrigation canal just east of Sanger on Sunday,” abc30.com reports. “The water flooded adjacent fields and forced the temporary evacuation of nearby homes. Repairs to the canal and cleanup are now underway. The Irrigation District is blaming wild pigs for this flooding. While the canal was dry, the animals apparently dug burrows into the canal bank. When water was put in for the first time Sunday, a section of the bank gave way — cutting water to more than 100,000 acres of farmland and giving one grower way too much.” How much? Anyway, TTAG reader GC notes “Too bad there are so many hunting restrictions, lead ammo restrictions and the requirement to buy a pig tag to take these things. Guess the idiots in Kommiefornia are happy to have the devastation caused by pigs.” /sarcasm.

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63 COMMENTS

  1. And you don’t need ar15s with their 30 clip magazines to hunt with? Haha have fun Cali.

    • No, you don’t. What you really need are AR-10’s with 25rd PMags & night vision scopes.

    • While pigs require tags in CA, which is the dumbest thing I have ever heard of it is unlimited.
      Having said that removing the little critters is a major pain. Yes you can use an AR with 10 rnd mag, and bullet button, but having a suppressor would make the job so much easier! No NFA items for normal folks in CA though.
      You reap what you sew.. Nuff said.

      • Yeah, I remember the wild pigs being a problem in the fields and forests around Redding, CA back in the 1980s – before all of the idiot hunting/lead/magazine/rifle bans took effect. Now that the state has made it harder to hunt them, they can cheerfully expect the numbers to double every couple of years. Do you suppose the Dem. Legislature will finally wake up when the pigs wipe out the endangered desert tortoises?

        Probably not – they will blame that on global warming/climate change/chaos/whatever and the Republicans.

  2. I kill those damn things any chance I get…

    They’re a huge nuisance, in Texas, pigs aren’t even considered game animals.

    • Same here in FL as they are a derelict species. We kill as many as we can but they absorb the losses and rebound quickly.

      • You are doing it wrong. You got to follow O.M.E.N. when dealing with things like hogs:

        -Organize
        -Machineguns
        -Explosives
        -No rest (not stopping)

        Granted, half the things on are illegal so that might hinder you.

        • We’re also hindered by being unable to use suppressors (to hunt) in FL. You can, however, use a light after dark on non-game animals (as hogs are designated here) on private land.

    • I had an infestation on my land about 10 years back. Managed to get rid of them by sniping a bunch of them at night and allowing a trapper access to my land. I still see them on land by the river a few miles from my place but thankfully they haven’t yet ventured back towards my place.

      Next time they come I am hoping to be able to use that new poison to get rid of them.

  3. Most states recognize them as the pests that they are and allow unrestricted hunting, with no closed season, no bag limit, etc. Why would California make it hard to…… opps, sorry, I forgot, dumb me.

  4. The hogs have seen the regulation and restriction of hunting and firearm rights continue for decades now in the NCR, and now see that they have bided their time long enough, and are now rising up. Soon the Hogs will sit in the California legislature, and the humans will be the ones rolling around in pig pens. Di Fi will be quick to kneel to her new Sow overlord as all firearms for humans are banned, and so the hogs solidify their rule….

  5. Guess the idiots in Kommiefornia are happy to have the devastation caused by pigs.

    The hogs are in the fields. The pigs are in the legislature.

  6. The enlightened people of California understand that for humans to hunt is barbaric. Why hunt your own meat when there is a McDonalds on every corner that serves delicious and wholesome meat?

  8. i was raised in fresno. it makes the news in a lot of bad ways, but if i HAD to live in california, the san joaquin valley is where id do it. those people vote, but still get dictated to by clowns in southern california and the bay area how they ought to live, and theyre deserving of our pity and support, not our scorn.

  9. Im all for calling California out on its stupidity, but $22.17 isnt all that bad for a pig tag. Year round season, and no limit on tags that can be bought. Obviously tag fees arent put back toward hunting/conservation as well as in other states, but a good portion of it does go back into our sport. The major problem I have encountered is the unwillingness of land owners to allow hunting on their land with out having to pay outrageous fees, who knows, maybe change could be on the horizon for that.

    • If it’s a nuisance species that is overpopulated, why need tags at all?

      No closed season implies they want them hunted. Over $20 per tag says “but we want to make money on it.”

      Here in NC, no closed season, no bag limit, night hunting (with lights) allowed, and NO SPECIFIC TAG REQUIRED. Resident hunting license for all species (except deer, turkey and bear) for the entire year, including UNLIMITED hogs, is less than 1/2 of your cost of ONE TAG.

      See, the thing is, the NC WRC is trying to solve a problem. In California, it seems like they are taking 1.9 steps back for every step forward they take. They get to say, “We allow the hunting” but they make it cost prohibitive for some to hunt at all and certainly for enough hunting to occur to begin to approach the problem.

      Geez. $22 for one hog tag…that’s just insane. That you are defending it equally makes me shake my head.

      Even with NC’s open door policy on hogs, WRC estimates hunting alone is insufficient to control the population. Think about that as you contemplate $22 tags.

      • I suppose I have simply gotten used to CA overcharging for tags. I agree with you completely, growing up in NM feral pigs and goats were free game. Literally free. I guess when a hunting lic costs $46 +$48 deer tag + $18 waterfowl validation + $21 upland game stamp… $22 doesn’t seem all that bad for the amount of meat you get out of it. Frog in a pot of water on the stove i guess.

        • Questions: Is the pricing to control hunting pressure? Are there that many hunters they try to limit it with the price?

          Or, are they trying to insure that only “those that can afford to” hunt? Or, are they trying to get rid of hunting period?

          $22 for the amount of meat you get is not much (in price per pound), but comparatively to other states, it just seems nuts.

          $45 here gets a resident Hunting + Big Game (includes six deer tags, turkey and bear) with bonus anterless deer tags $10 in some areas. Basic Hunting iincludes no limit, no closed season on hogs and ‘yotes.

          A non-resident pays $100 for Hunting + Big Game, but also has to pay $125 for bear and can still get bonus antlerless for $10.

          State waterfowl is $10 for both res and nonres.

          Now, if you really want to cry, look at Montana Deer/Elk for non-resident. Ugh. They are proud of those.

        • The pricing is a barrier to entry to keep the riff raff out so its secure for the gentry. Its the same reason for $500 concealed carry licenses and business permits. Can’t have just anybody exercising their rights.

      • Sure the state makes $20 of the pig tag, but they aren’t the ones raking it in on pig hunting. Most of the private land owners will not allow hunting on their property, those that do, lease to guides or outfitters who charge $400-$1200+ to hunt a pig. Seems to me that the ranchers and farmers don’t really want to get rid of their pig problem, it is too profitable for them.

    • The pig tag prices are now extortionate. Not even ten years ago, a 5 pack of pig tags was $11. That’s the kind of reasonable pricing that Sacramento has been trying to stamp out. Anti-hunting, anti-hunter, and anti-common sense.

      Edit: I was mistaken, it was exactly 10 years ago the prices were raised 700%. Previously, 5 tags was $8.75. Note that AFTER that huge price bump, tag prices have increased another 50%+ in the last 10 years.
      Source: http://www.westernhunter.com/Pages/Vol06Issue03/cabudget.html

    • I wouldn’t mind the 22.75 if it were put back into conservation and management, but it instead is being put to regulation of human activities. Wild pig has become the most hunted species in California and their is little to be done to improve the deer habitat. Does anyone think the department of fish and wildlife is join got kill its cash cow species?

  10. Too bad CA has all those restrictions. Here in MI, if you’re out hunting with any license or have a concealed pistol license and come across feral swine then you are allowed to shoot them. Doesnt matter the time of year either. The DNR considers them a toxic species.

  11. Simple solution: Cut off water to LA to make up for it. 🙂

    (… Im only semi- serious….)

    • If we cut off their water, LA would become a desert again, and then all those people would have to move–and they’d probably move up here where the water came from. Shudder.

  12. When it comes to the Peoples Republic of Kommiefornia problems I have to do the classic facepalm, follow up by shaking my head side to side, then rolling my eyes. You know something really is messed up about your state when hogs cause natural disasters.

  14. Illegal to charge a fee to hunt them here. And you are required to report sightings if you are a land owner.

  16. It wasn’t until a week or two ago that I actually looked into hog hunting for something to do in the off season here when a friend asked if I wanted to help take care of his hog problem. Over $20 a tag to remove a pest species. I can hunt coyotes year round with nothing more than a hunting license but the moment I want to remove an incredibly damaging animal, I have to pay a ridiculous amount for every kill. So for $22.17 for every pig I kill, I’ll pass.

    • Insane prices.
      When I was a kid Pigs were free and all you can eat

      $46.44 Hunting Lic
      $30.81 1st Deer Tag
      $38.06 Second-Deer Tag (WTF)
      $22.17 Pig tag (may purchase an unlimited number of Wild Pig Tags) I would say the limit is your wallet.
      $45.10 Bear Tag
      $3.24 Bobcat Tags (each, up to 5 tags)

  17. Heck here in Michigan the DNR allows anyone with a concealed pistol license or any hunting tag to take wild pigs. I find the allowance of CPL holders to shoot pigs hilarious.

  18. It looks like the People’s Commissars for Kalifornia have decided it is better to control the feral pig population by teaching their porcine comrades Marxist/Leninist theory. The response from the pigs when faced with their educator was “LUNCH”.

    At least downunder there are no tags, season restrictions, or bag limits on feral pigs. But hunting them is major pain because of the requirements to have hunting as your reason to have a license.

  19. I’ve never been a hunter, but I had been thinking of trying to hunt nuisance species like feral pigs and coyotes as a way to practice shooting outside a range setting. Didn’t realize California had such stupid rules. I really need to move my ass back to Texas.

    In the meantime, what would I need to hunt coyotes in California, and where could I hunt? Noob asking noob questions.

  20. Soon the pigs will be protected species and not allowed to be disturbed if it prevents watering farms. California is on a suicide mission to end farming as they know it.

    • Yup.

      And what’s more, there are lots of urbanites who are utterly stupid about farming. I’m talking as stupid as a sack of hammers on the topic, and it isn’t just the usual urban liberal suspects. I’ve corresponded with people at Cato who are utterly clueless on ranching and farming as well.

      California is home to some of the most productive farmland in the world – not just the US, the world. It isn’t fungible with acres of farmland in other regions or states. Irrigation is the only reason why much of California can be farmed.

      Little bit of history for folks: Everyone thinks the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River was put there to generate power. Wrong. The power generation was a “oh, by the way” issue, aka “Oh, by the way, we can generate some nice electrical power for Southern California” in addition to the main mission of the dam, which was to control downstream flooding in highly productive SoCal farming valleys. As far back as the late 20’s, people could look at California agriculture and say “Wow, we’ve got the goose laying golden eggs right there, we’d better do something to make sure it keeps laying…”

      Today, so many people are so ignorant as to where food actually comes from, and what is necessary to grow food, that we end up with utterly stupid land use policies, as well as the stupidity in California restricting irrigation waters to central valley farmers under the notion that we’re going to protect some inane little fish called the “Delta Smelt.” Once those farms are dried up for a couple/three years, they probably won’t be put back into production.

  21. Here’s how nuisance species hunting works when you want it to be effective: Instead of asking people to pay a license fee or fill out any paperwork to shoot the pests, you offer a bounty. In other words, you pay people to shoot/trap/kill the animals.

    It used to work this way with coyotes. It is done with some species in some ag districts – ground squirrels, pocket gophers, prairie dogs, etc.

    Want the pigs gone? Total up the cost of this ditch break and reckon to pay 1/10,000th of that per pig as a bounty.

    No more problem in about two years.

    Thanks to fiscal stupidity, government employee unions (which has led to fiscal stupidity in abundance) and craven political hacks catering to “animal rights” twerps, bounties on things like feral pigs are gone, replaced with disincentives to hunt the pigs.

    • Yep. Except, its California. Hunters = bad, Environmentalists = good.

      Therefore, the approved top-down plan for pig eradication in So Cal is govt hunters by helicopter, and pen trapping. And some areas may be closed to civilian hunters, who they dont want mucking about “stepping on endangered plants” (this from a USFS biologist I spoke to a couple years back). Or scaring the pigs off, once located.

      Besides in the San Diego mountains and canyons, you cant get into most areas except by foot on miles long walks, since private inholdings are gated, and the roads that “did” go in there, are not as well maintained in past by USFS, nor are gates left unlocked. That means if you happen to be passing over a piece of private property on the way in or out, without a written permission from the property owner, you are poaching.

      Local hunters are partly p.o.’d about it, partly resigned.
      http://www.976-hunt.com/2012/07/cleveland-national-forest-moving-ahead-with-plans-to-eradicate-feral-hogs/
      I dont know if this has gone into effect. Cant get an answer anywhere online and its tough getting USFS info, and even harder to get a real warden on the horn.

      The hunters finding pigs are not talking, of course, how and where, but the bottom line right now with the two -year drought is you gotta be wayyy deep in the canyons where the water is…

      Besides, you are more at risk from the “coyotes” human trafficing, or the narco’s guards on the illegal grows, both of which are growing in severity, and danger. Pretty much dont want to be south of I-8 these days…especially at night.
      http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Border-Agent-Killed-Over-Night-Vision-Goggles.html

      Better off hunting in central CA, where the pig problem is much bigger and the state is more helpful to hunters – Kern County, Tejon Ranch needs the hunters to keep the numbers down. State pig management guys are good guys- its just the politics at the top, that make CA such a mess, that experienced hunters learn to simply go out of state for most hunting.

      http://www.huntwildpig.com/state-specifics/california-pig-hunting/

  23. The “shake and bake” state isn’t happy with natural disasters, now they’re blaming free range bacon!

  24. There are no coincidences

    Hordes of Central American disease ridded “refuges” (etc) manage to get across the normally sealed Southern border of Mexico, travel the entire length of the country and cross the Southern US border. And hordes of piggies rise up. Obuma/Jarret.

  25. It’s not a big deal really at all. If they had a warrant they wouldn’t have knocked. They would have busted in, thrown flash bang grenades, shot every dog they could find and tackled and shackled the owner and any other people in the house including children sleeping in their beds.

    So, if someone knocks at your door, use your peep hole, or in some other way find out who is out there before you open your door. Cops and federal agents have been known to literally put their foot in the door to intimidate the occupant.

    If you find out it is a government employee of any kind (especially those thugs with shiny badges), Lock the door, lock the back door, and make sure all your windows are closed. And don’t answer any questions they have.

    Never talk to the police.

  26. California does not want mere serfs to hunt; that is reserved for the noble government agencies. Silly serfs!

  27. Two points

    1. Lead ban does not go in effect till 2017

    2. The reason for the tags I believe is more about money making than any anti-hunting agenda. Quite a few people who have never hunted and out of staters come here to hunt pigs. Bow hunting on Catalina anyone? And if you really want a successful hunt, that means private land, maybe a guide…so you are already paying hundreds of dollars. The state wants its share of the pie.

    The cost for deer, e.g., isn’t that bad compared to many other “hunter friendly” states, so I don’t think it is primarily about being anti-hunter.

    Now I do think they should be treated like coyote with no tags. But it might not be as nefarious of reasoning as suggested

  28. Here land owners are free to shoot them on their land, but hog hunting is banned. In the past six years our feral hog population has been cut in half.

    We figured out that if landowners aren’t making money off of the hogs destroying their property (through hunting leases and guide services) they’ll grab a gun and actually get rid of them, instead of treating them like a resource. It wouldn’t work in Komifornia though. there’s too much federally owned land.

  29. 10 years ago a license was 25 bucks, deer tags were 25 and second tag was 27 and a book of 5 pig tags was 7 with no limit and year round season. Now everything has at least doubled. While most hunter friendly states charge at least double for non resident licenses and tags, California charges almost the same price as resident license and tags. We’re in our 5th year of drought and our wonderful dirt bag politicians let pigs set us back further. No longer can you get permits for dogs or coyotes or cats killing your livestock, you’re required to call the county trapper to come trap the damn thing which means you’re going to lose at least 2 head of stock first. Deer messing up your hay stack or hogs messing up your fields is no longer a reason to shoot. Send all these anti gun/ anti hunting/ environmentalist/ vegan/ democraps to Antarctica to study the effects of penguins on veggie gardens

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