Is "baiting" & "trapping" really hunting?

[Nel frattempo]

(Note: This is NOT a discussion about the "right" or "wrong" of hunting in general please. We are asking for opinions, ideas and input from those who do hunt or who know people who do hunt. We are also not looking for a legal opinion, we know what the law says.)

Wild Boar have returned to our property. This happens about once per year, is usually taken care of by the Hunters who live on the next property (when they make several kills - the pigs leave the area for a while), however this year they have not yet hunted. Several people have asked for permission to Hunt the Wild Boar on our property. Through experience (that would be another story) we have learned to ask several questions before allowing someone to come over here with guns/bows - and in questioning - the topic of trapping (metal or wood traps baited with corn), baiting, and "real hunting" has come up.

We are trying to settle things in our minds about whether or not it is "OK" to trap the pigs, bait the pigs, and whether or not that is really "hunting" and is there a distinction about it within the hunting community? We are trying to understand the bigger picture so we can make up our own minds. (Leave OUT the Legal issues please - we already know what the local Laws say about it.) :1pig: :1pig:

[sugarbush]

All is fair with wild pigs....they are feral so the dept does not regulate hunting them except to say that the season is open all year around.... if you have people asking to hunt them let them at it, because they cost farmers thousands of dollars in crop losses every year and the taxpayer pays the farmers that money every year.
In general baiting is legal in some states, but quickly becomming illegal as it is linked to the spread of disease.... Personnally it makes no difference to me weather you bait a deer in or just sit in a tree and wait for one to wander by... in the end the deer is either on the wall, in the freezer or both. The only thing baiting really does is alow the hunters to select the deer that they want and shortens the time in the woods.
Trapping is not hunting.... its trapping.
I wouldn't bait pigs on my land if we had them.... it would just encourge the ones who are not harvested to come back.

[Meg Z]

I'd say the definition of hunting changes with your purpose. If your purpose is to outsmart the critter, then hunting would be the trail and stalk method. If you're hunting to put meat on the table, or to remove a pest species...which the feral pig is, as a non-native species...then I'd say anything goes within the law. That includes stands, traps, and baiting.

A bragged on trophy should have been taken by stalking the prey. But meat on the table could have been road kill, as long as it's fresh!

Personally, however, I'd avoid methods that don't provide a quick kill. No sense in torturing an animal caught in a leg-hold trap, for example.

Meg

[sugarbush]

Originally Posted by Meg Z

Personally, however, I'd avoid methods that don't provide a quick kill. No sense in torturing an animal caught in a leg-hold trap, for example.

Meg

I agree... unless they are using box traps and shooting the pig in the head....that would be more humane than trying to get a clean kill from 100 yards away.

Its also worth mentioning that wild boar, hogs, pigs, whatever you call them are domestic livestock gone wild.....they are not wild game. And just like domestic pigs they are very inteligent which is probably why some hunters wish to use bait or traps.

[CoonXpress]

Meg, here's a hog trap.

They're real common here in Ok and Tx.

Feral pigs have the right to a quick death.
Other than that, whatever is legal goes.


Meg, the only times animals get tortured in a "leghold" trap is when PETA needs some pictures.

[fishhead]

You want the pigs gone and trapping is probably the most efficient method. I guess I don't see a problem except that being held in a trap is probably distressful for the pig. In that case I would just require they kill the pig first thing in the morning.

Or maybe you could buy or build a trap and put the pigs in your freezer.

[Bearfootfarm]

I dont see a lot of difference in putting out some "bait" or hunting over a bean field. Either way youre taking advantage of food to help bring in the game. Bait can also be used to get them into an open position to be able to get a shot vs just hoping they will move into a clear area. And since the bait remains even when youre not hunting, it merely supplements thier diets

Putting out bait doesnt insure anything. It just increases the odds slightly

[Cabin Fever]

Trapping, baiting, using dogs, and hunting are all methods of harvesting wild animals, or in this case, feral livestock.

[Linebacker]

If the goal is to remove the feral hogs from your property, then by all means allow the baiting and trapping. I do know of some trappers that set traps and never go and check them, but most are very good sportsmen and very knowledgeable about their quarry and the enviroment. IMO trapping/baiting would be the most efficient and fastest way to control the hogs.

[tinknal]

Originally Posted by Cabin Fever

Trapping, baiting, using dogs, and hunting are all methods of harvesting wild animals, or in this case, feral livestock.

Amen. People often trash certain methods because they do not understand local conditions. Westerners in particular like to criticize bear baiting. The thing is you have wide open vistas and can spot and stalk a bear from miles away. Here in the tully woods that the local bruins favor you are lucky if you can see them 50 yards away and without bait darn few bear would ever be taken and we would be over run with them.

[keltink]

We're in WNC, too, (where are y'all at?) and also have hogs coming onto the property regularly. In our experience you have to do something to control them - they'll destroy watersheds by wallowing in the water, and they'll remove almost every living thing smaller than a tree off mountainsides, setting the stage for serious erosion.
Nothing, in my mind, is wrong with baiting and trapping (using a box), or with hunting them with a gun or bow, or basically doing anything you can to control the problem. Dogs help, but we had a sow and her young last year that simply ignored ours (maybe they recognized they were facing bird dogs?), and were rooting in daylight in the front yard.
We shot the sow and one of the piglets, and I suspect neighbors got the others. We ate ours, and I'm sure they did the same.
The National Park Service has a trapping program that utilizes the boxes. My understanding is they move the pigs after capture to state lands where they can be hunted. If you aren't interested in harvesting hogs for food, you might work with a local hunt club that wants to do the same as the park service. Maybe advertise in Iwanna or Craig's List?

[Jim S.]

Baiting is not hunting. Trapping is hunting.

The distinction is that the hunter must acquaint him or herself to the habits and routines of the intended prey animal. A hunter then uses one or more of a variety of weapons to kill the animal. Among those are slingshots, rifles, handguns, bow and arrow, and traps, as well as others.

Baiting requires no intimate study of the animal's habits and range, no stalking and no arrangements for best probability for harvest. So it's not hunting. Sitting in a tree stand, for example, above an area where you have had a salt lick out year-around and waiting for the deer to come to it is not hunting. Neither is putting our deer suckers and corn all year in that spot, then removing them just so it is legal for the season.

Hunters themselves sometimes put even finer distinctions on hunting. I know a deer hunter who says anyone who rides into the woods on an ATV and sits on his butt in a stand is not hunting deer. This guy tracks them year-around, and then in-season he stalks them, moving up on them from the ground and shooting. He has the best deer meat I have ever tasted, because he is at ground level and so close to them by stalking that when he does shoot, they drop instantly. No adrenalin-pumping wounded deer death chase.

I had my ponds get infested with beaver a few years back. The trapper who came in to rid them spent a whole week doing nothing but observing the area. Never set out a trap. I went out with him. He noted paths and trails and what he was looking for, based on his knowledge of beaver behavior patterns from years of stalking them. The idea, he said, was to trap them all at once or else they would get very wary for any subsequent trappings.

Then the day came when he set his traps. He showed me how he prepared them, and I went along as he set them in all the places where the beavers had shown him they would move. Sure enough, he trapped every single beaver in one night, using no bait. That is hunting.

[RichieC]

whhhhhhhhhhdsdkcd

[sugarbush]

Originally Posted by Jim S.

Baiting is not hunting. Trapping is hunting.

The distinction is that the hunter must acquaint him or herself to the habits and routines of the intended prey animal.

So how is baiting not being aquainted with the habit of an animal to eat as well as knowing what it likes best to eat???

[Micahn]

I agree with a lot that has already been said. To me baiting hogs in a trap or just to pull them to a spot to shoot is ok and have done both myself. Baiting deer and other game animals is not right in my eyes.
A great bait for hogs is sour corn :-) We used to buy a bag of cracked corn and put it into 5 gal buckets with water. Put the lids on and let it sit out side for a few days. Take it where you want the hog to go and open the lids (remember it will stink lol) and dump it out. Any hog within a couple of miles down wind will come running.
Catching wild hog and feeding them corn and such for a couple of months makes for some great eating.

[Jim S.]

Originally Posted by sugarbush

So how is baiting not being aquainted with the habit of an animal to eat as well as knowing what it likes best to eat???

Uh, read the post!!!

[texican]

Feral hogs are great if you have hunting property leased. If you own the land, they're not that great, as they'll run off other game, and destroy woodlands, pastures, wetlands, haymeadows...etc.

Some folks confuse harvesting with hunting...

Some animals I harvest..... they die and go in the freezer.

Some animals I hunt... whitetails... I brag, hang the head, stretch the hide, and still they go in the freezer.

If you have hogs, the best way of getting rid of the whole lot is bait and trap. If someone shoots them, they'll scatter, and leave, and come back later when hunting pressure ceases. Problem returns. If you run em with dogs, most'll be caught, but they'll return. Trapping is the best, cause you can catch every one (except the one's that've been caught once before in a trap, and released elsewhere).

[sugarbush]

Hunting storries are like fishing storries.....alot of tall tails.
I know plenty of people who out of the woods brag about how they don't use tree stands and they don't bait yadyadayada.... Some of these storries are true and those people don't shoot deer either......My wife calls them hikers who are armed. Some of them are not so true and those people shoot deer every year, but when in the woods some of their hunting ethics slide just a little. Really nobody cares what one person thinks is hunting and somebody else does not. As long as its by the book what does it matter?

[edcopp]

Originally Posted by RichieC

whhhhhhhhhhdsdkcd

Do you really think so?

[MELOC]

i think it is very subjective. it really depends on the situation. personally, i don't think sitting next to an apple pile and waiting on deer is hunting. there are other ways to go about it. i do think it is ok to use scents to lure bucks in the rut. in general, i think deer leave so many signs that one can find a good spot an wait...normally. when you hunt for antlers and a trophy buck who has been cagey enough to evade hunters for several seasons, those scents help to even the odds a bit. deer are awesome prey animals and have keen senses and the ability to evade even the best hunter using the best lures. you are in their back yard after all.

some folks would consider hunting on a farm much like sitting by an apple pile, but what are the farmers supposed to do? you cannot let the deer population get out of control. forgetting about the crop loses, it is just not healthy to have too large a population of any animal anywhere.

when you trap, that is an entirely different can of worms. how in the world would you ever stalk a fox or coon? what are the odds of finding one on a trail armed just with a gun and luck? it is hard to track a small animal like that without snow. chances are they would see you before you saw them anyhow. i don't trap, but i used to go with my dad when i was a kid. i personally think it is a bit cruel, but that is my choice and more power to those with the stomach for it. apart from trapping, about the only other way to effectively get a fox is to use a lure... a rabbit in distress call works good, but many folks don't have the patience for that.


eta...in your case, it is much like the farmer. the hogs are a nuisence and the population needs kept in check. they breed like rabbits. as long as the animal is dispatched in a humane way, what does it matter what method is used? bait and trap the suckers if you wish to use a large cage.