Roleplayer’s Off Topic Thread #9

[The Good Doctor]

I’ve encountered quite a few boar. They’re way too common out in the woods. Farmers will sometimes pay you to shoot them if you see one while hunting on their property, since they breed so fast and then obliterate crops. Most often I just hear them from my deer stand before the sun comes up. They’re usually all asleep by the time it’s actually bright enough to see.

When I was a kid, a baby one attacked my friend’s dog and his stepdad shot it. 

[The Good Doctor]

2 minutes ago, ColonelKillaBee said:

 As for reasons to go in, no, but people do anyway, LOL. 

Fishing, hunting, collecting fossilized shark teeth, stuff like that. I bought a megalodon shark tooth from a guy that scuba dives and collects them from a river bed that has a bunch of them.

Okay, now that’s freaking awesome. Fuck the sharks, I wanna do this now.

[ColonelKillaBee]

7 minutes ago, The Good Doctor said:

Okay, now that’s freaking awesome. Fuck the sharks, I wanna do this now.

Hey if you ever come by I’ll hook you up, he takes people out there, offered me to come as well. 

The one I got was a baby Meg, wanted him to make it into a wrap necklace so I could wear it. It’s still kinda heavy for wearing tho lol so I just keep it like an heirloom. Reminds me of the devil’s pic on Tenacious D lol.

 

[BigBossBalrog]

1 hour ago, The Good Doctor said:

I’ve encountered quite a few boar. They’re way too common out in the woods. Farmers will sometimes pay you to shoot them if you see one while hunting on their property, since they breed so fast and then obliterate crops. Most often I just hear them from my deer stand before the sun comes up. They’re usually all asleep by the time it’s actually bright enough to see.

When I was a kid, a baby one attacked my friend’s dog and his stepdad shot it. 

Poor baby boar 

I could never harm a baby animal, but it's often times more merciful to euthanize them then leave them by themselves with their parents dead. Quick and clean, instead of starving to death.

[The Good Doctor]

9 minutes ago, BigBossBalrog said:

Poor baby boar 

I could never harm a baby animal, but it's often times more merciful to euthanize them then leave them by themselves with their parents dead. Quick and clean, instead of starving to death.

I mean, it was attacking their dog. 

[BigBossBalrog]

1 minute ago, The Good Doctor said:

I mean, it was attacking their dog. 

It's a wild animal and a baby. But yeah I guess...

I know a few hunters who stumbled on some baby black bears, and they took them to animal sanctuary cause they killed their mother. So some go the extra mile.

[The Good Doctor]

2 minutes ago, BigBossBalrog said:

It's a wild animal and a baby. But yeah I guess...

I know a few hunters who stumbled on some baby black bears, and they took them to animal sanctuary cause they killed their mother. So some go the extra mile.

“It’s a wild animal”. Exactly. Those can be dangerous and this one was hurting their pet. We ain’t exactly surrounded by wild animal sanctuaries here, so short of tossing it in the truck bed and taking it out to the woods to die on its own anyway, I’m not sure what else the guy could’ve done besides kill it. Besides, he’s a farmer. Hogs here are a huge nuisance to them. They breed too fast and destroy everything. 

[BTC]

9 minutes ago, The Good Doctor said:

“It’s a wild animal”. Exactly. Those can be dangerous and this one was hurting their pet. We ain’t exactly surrounded by wild animal sanctuaries here, so short of tossing it in the truck bed and taking it out to the woods to die on its own anyway, I’m not sure what else the guy could’ve done besides kill it. Besides, he’s a farmer. Hogs here are a huge nuisance to them. They breed too fast and destroy everything. 

They’re an invasive species too, so it’s not like you’re upsetting the balance of nature by killing them. Hell, here in Texas killing them is probably a good thing since they compete with native javelinas and other animals for food. So yeah, not a lot of sympathy for people rooting out invasive species, especially those as destructive as feral hogs

[The Good Doctor]

2 minutes ago, BTCollins said:

They’re an invasive species too, so it’s not like you’re upsetting the balance of nature by killing them. Hell, here in Texas killing them is probably a good thing since they compete with native javelinas and other animals for food. So yeah, not a lot of sympathy for people rooting out invasive species, especially those as destructive as feral hogs

Exactly. Like I said, any time I hunt for deer, the farmers who own the land ask me to shoot any hogs I see. Hell, I even had a game warden ask me to last year. They can become a real problem.

[BTC]

For a little more info on them:

“As of 2013, the estimated population of six million feral pigs causes billions of dollars in property damage every year in the United States, both in wild and agricultural lands. Because pigs forage by rooting for their food under the ground with their snouts and tusks, a sounder (group) of feral pigs can damage acres of planted fields in just a few nights. Because of the feral pig's omnivorous nature, it is a danger to both plants and animals endemic to the area it is invading.”

I’m a pretty conservationist person, but like the boa constrictors that get released in Florida, I’ve got no sympathy for people getting rid of invasive species. 

2 minutes ago, The Good Doctor said:

Exactly. Like I said, any time I hunt for deer, the farmers who own the land ask me to shoot any hogs I see. Hell, I even had a game warden ask me to last year. They can become a real problem.

Anytime I’ve ever been hunting we’ve been asked to shoot any hogs we see. They’re a massive problem here in Texas

”Texas has the largest estimated population of 2.6 million feral pigs existing in 253 of its 254 counties.”

All from Wikipedia because I’m too lazy to dig through the real sources

Edited May 10, 2018 by BTCollins

[The Good Doctor]

7 minutes ago, BTCollins said:

“Texas has the largest estimated population of 2.6 million feral pigs existing in 253 of its 254 counties.”

I love that there is apparently just that one county where they have seemingly figured out how to deal with the problem.  Y’all need to ask them what they did.

I’d love to go hog hunting in Texas one day. And when I’m rich, I’m gonna do it in style like these guys.

 

[BTC]

8 minutes ago, The Good Doctor said:

I love that there is apparently just that one county where they have seemingly figured out how to deal with the problem.  Y’all need to ask them what they did.

It's El Paso County, which has the benefit of being really separate from the main areas feral hogs live. It's got the benefit of being surrounded on all sides by mountains and desert which probably helps. Though I wouldn't be surprised if that information is outdated given the fact they're everywhere else in West Texas, and have spread into urban areas too.

[BigBossBalrog]

1 hour ago, The Good Doctor said:

I love that there is apparently just that one county where they have seemingly figured out how to deal with the problem.  Y’all need to ask them what they did.

I’d love to go hog hunting in Texas one day. And when I’m rich, I’m gonna do it in style like these guys.

 

That looks really stupid and utter overkill. We're the sport in it if you got a fucking assault rifle and a heli.

[The Good Doctor]

3 minutes ago, BigBossBalrog said:

That looks really stupid and utter overkill. We're the sport in it if you got a fucking assault rifle and a heli.

1. Not an assault rifle. 

2. It’s not about the sport. It’s about culling a population that has grown to a dangerous size. See BT’s posts.

[BigBossBalrog]

Just now, The Good Doctor said:

1. Not an assault rifle. 

2. It’s not about the sport. It’s about culling a population that has grown to a dangerous size. See BT’s posts.

My mistake. It still seems ridiculous and over the top to me.

We cull our massive deer population in Northern Ontario perfectly fine without resorting to flying around in choppers. What does he think he's in, Apocalypse Now? Might as well put Flight of the Valkyries on.

[BigBossBalrog]

Not to be offensive or anything  Hunting culture I guess is different over here as it is we're ya'll are. I just think that video looks really silly. I apologise if I came off rude.

[The Good Doctor]

Just now, BigBossBalrog said:

My mistake. It still seems ridiculous and over the top to me.

We cull our massive deer population in Northern Ontario perfectly fine without resorting to flying around in choppers. What does he think he's in, Apocalypse Now? Might as well put Flight of the Valkyries on.

Deer are much less destructive than hogs. Again, see BT’s post. Even with people doing this, the population is still way out of hand and causing lots of problems, so clearly it’s not over the top.

It ain’t like the settlers exterminating herds of buffalo from trains. This has a positive impact, or it wouldn’t even be allowed, let alone encouraged.

[BTC]

Yeah the general limits most animals have with regards to how they can be hunted are thrown out the window where feral hogs are concerned. It’s basically 24/7 365 hunting season on them, with all manner of traps being used. And you can even use dogs. Though it’s not wasteful as there is a meat processing business that’s grown up around it. But when an invasive species is causing damage to not only agriculture but the native species as well, basically all gloves are off. 

The way I see it, we’ve caused this massive population problem and it’s our job to fix it too. 

[The Good Doctor]

1 minute ago, BigBossBalrog said:

Not to be offensive or anything  Hunting culture I guess is different over here as it is we're ya'll are. I just think that video looks really silly. I apologise if I came off rude.

Maybe it is, but I feel like you’re misreading the circumstances here. Flying around in choppers and mowing down animals ain’t common here. It’s a specific measure that’s been taken for hogs because of how big a problem they’ve become. When the deer population gets too high, we just hunt a little more than usual. Maybe kill two instead of one. But hogs are a more serious and immediate problem.

[The Good Doctor]

8 minutes ago, BTCollins said:

The way I see it, we’ve caused this massive population problem and it’s our job to fix it too. 

Holy cow, you ain’t kidding!

“And yet wild hogs were barely more than a curiosity in the Lone Star State until the 1980s. It’s only since then that the population has exploded, and not entirely because of the animals’ intelligence, adaptability and fertility. Hunters found them challenging prey, so wild hog populations were nurtured on ranches that sold hunting leases; some captured hogs were released in other parts of the state.”

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/a-plague-of-pigs-in-texas-73769069/

[ColonelKillaBee]

24 minutes ago, BigBossBalrog said:

That looks really stupid and utter overkill. We're the sport in it if you got a fucking assault rifle and a heli.

 you lost right there

[BigBossBalrog]

4 minutes ago, ColonelKillaBee said:

 you lost right there

When I see something that isn't an old school rifle, all I think is "Assault Rifle"  Watching the video, it's clearly not one. 

[BTC]

8 minutes ago, The Good Doctor said:

Holy cow, you ain’t kidding!

“And yet wild hogs were barely more than a curiosity in the Lone Star State until the 1980s. It’s only since then that the population has exploded, and not entirely because of the animals’ intelligence, adaptability and fertility. Hunters found them challenging prey, so wild hog populations were nurtured on ranches that sold hunting leases; some captured hogs were released in other parts of the state.”

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/a-plague-of-pigs-in-texas-73769069/

Yeah, not the greatest or brightest moment Texas has had lol. People literally spread them around, even though it was illegal. And now not only are they a massive problem here but they’ve spread in other states as well. So, the way I see it, we gotta undo that mistake and protect the environments the hogs are destroying. 

The funniest part is that the hunters found them challenging prey, and that’s the last thing you would want from an invasive species like that

[BigBossBalrog]

Pigs in general are one of the most adaptable species on the planet. Was stupid to do that  (Like people putting fucking Catfish in the lakes)

[The Good Doctor]

6 minutes ago, BTCollins said:

Yeah, not the greatest or brightest moment Texas has had lol. People literally spread them around, even though it was illegal. And now not only are they a massive problem here but they’ve spread in other states as well. So, the way I see it, we gotta undo that mistake and protect the environments the hogs are destroying. 

The funniest part is that the hunters found them challenging prey, and that’s the last thing you would want from an invasive species like that

I always thought it was just their breeding habits that made them such a problem. I’m pretty sure that’s why we’ve got so many here. Had no idea that people actually bred them.  What a massive backfire. I wonder how many of the ranchers who brought them over are now the ones hiring people to hunt them.