Revision of Oklahoma-2015-HB 1104

We the people of the state of Oklahoma want to voice our opposition to Oklahoma - 2015- HB 1104. HB 1104 aims to control the spread of wild or feral hogs within the state of Oklahoma, but in effect, will do the opposite.

Current laws restrict the transportation of live feral hogs to those persons who have applied for and received a transporter license from the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry.

The Feral Swine Control Act was passed in 2008 to address feral swine facility and transporter licensing. This act created oversight of captive feral swine and is intended to prevent the release and propagation of feral swine upon unlicensed properties. Licensed facilities are inspected annually and approved for maintaining feral swine.

Licensed transporters are allowed to move live feral swine across the state for sale to licensed feral swine facilities or slaughter houses. We feel that the current laws, if applied, leave law enforcement agencies with more than enough means to stop the illegal transportation, release and sale of feral swine.

By mandating the castration of boars and the killing of sows the state of Oklahoma will render the live market for legal feral swine obsolete, giving no monetary incentive for hunters to trap or pursue feral swine with hounds. Slaughter houses will not accept dead hogs. One of the results of this proposed legislation will be dead hogs rotting in fields while needy Oklahomans go hungry.

Hog dog hunters and trappers currently operate year round in an effort to reduce feral swine numbers for farmers and ranchers. With the monetary incentive absent much of this will end, leaving wild hog numbers to increase exponentially the 9 months out of the year that deer hunters are not in the woods.

Without the current live feral swine market, many farmers and ranchers will find themselves having to pay hunters to come to their aid in the removal of feral hogs. At the current time most hunters will remove wild hogs from a ranch or farm free of charge because the hunter can sell the live feral swine to a licensed buying station. Without this financial offset, many hog dog hunters will be forced to leave the sport. It is only common sense that less hog hunters will equate to more wild hogs.

The current holding facility license allows hog dog hunters a legal means to hold feral swine at a state inspected facility. This is often used for purposes to train hog dogs so that the caliber of hog dogs in the state of Oklahoma remains among the highest in the United States and more wild hogs are captured legally.

Without this legal means to hold hogs for training purposes the state of Oklahoma will have fewer dogs with the training needed to be able to successfully go to farms and ranches that are being decimated by wild hogs and help in the removal of the invasive species.

Hog dog hunters and trappers are often given a bad name by the minority in our numbers that are outlaws. Sadly, no law will deter an outlaw. We are afraid that this legislation will not help to curtail these outlaw elements, but only tie the hands of the hog hunters that obey the law, limiting the aid we can offer in eradicating feral hogs in Oklahoma.