I've mentioned before that the IDNR was trapping/shooting wild hogs in my area. Found this story today, saying they have now killed close to 80 in my county and over 300 in the neighboring county. The state mentions how much of a nuisance the hogs are, but are making it illegal to kill them outside of deer season. Talk about a head scratcher. WJBD - Local News - Illinois Department of Natural Resources to Crack Down on Wild Hogs
Don't worry. With brain surgeons like the dnr it wont take long for it to be a year round shoot on sight like it is here!
My first thought was wtf about making it illegal. However they have done this because the year long season was spurring illegal hog activity. By making the outfitters illegal and the season illegal there is no money in it and this will help stop people wanting the pigs around. They have also mentioned that using guns isolates the pigs and makes it harder to hunt them in larger groups. During deer season everything is running wild anyway so it will not interfere with the erradication and by making it legal during deer gun season no extra money will be made off of the hogs through outfitting, etc. The only change I would have made was making it legal during bow season with a bow only. If the numbers are are as far down as they claim in the attached, they have done a good job and I agree with what they are doing.
Maybe its the cynic in me, but I see the DNR as wanting to make money off of the situation by selling a tag to take hogs.
