Hog hunters enlist GPS to track dogs

Daisy and Tick had their noses in the air, but they weren’t on their way to any highfalutin tea party — they were on their way to a hog hunt.
“See how they are breathing with their mouths open and their noses in the air?” asked Rick “Shoo-Shoo” Brown as he and several other hog hunters made their way down a dirt road south of Basile, near the Mamou Canal and along Bayou Nezpique. “They already smell something.”
Brown of Eunice was joined by Matt Alexander of Jennings and Jason Pitre and his son Jay of Basile. Four of Alexander’s cur dogs -— Daisy, Tick, Tweak and Skimpy -— and Bubba the bull dog were loaded up on the back of Alexander’s UTV. The four curs served as the trackers for the trip, while Bubba is considered a “get ‘em” dog, released only when the tracker dogs have cornered a hog.
“The property owner has seen an increase in hogs on the property lately,” Brown said. “He said he saw a bunch them in a field just north of his camp the other night.”
State not in hog heaven
Feral hogs caused at least $30 million in damage to crops on Louisiana farms in 2013, according to a recent LSU AgCenter study.
Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries estimates put the hog population at about 500,000, where it has basically been for the last few years, even though 182,000 hogs were harvested last year.
Regulation changes that allow hunters more leeway with hog hunting have put a a small dent in the problem, but another solution is also making its way up the chain of command.
“Sodium nitrite has been tested and is being tested by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) right now,” said James M. LaCour, DVM and state wildlife veterinarian for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. “It may still take a few years before it can be approved. It’s made progress this far, and the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) received the chemical about six months ago from the USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) Wildlife Service. The federal government has applied for approval of the chemical through the EPA.”
The poison will be tested to see if it is humane, that the form will not kill other animals or anything on the landscape and that it is specific to hogs.
For the last three years, the department has also tried to have legislation passed that will limit the transport of hogs caught in the wild, but the most recent effort to pass the legislation was shot down in the Legislature.
According the LaCour, hunting hogs from helicopters has also proved effective in certain areas, like marshes and swamps, and agency staff killed about 2,000 hogs this way last year. The department also began granting permits for business to offer such services, and at least two such business applied for the license and are up and running.
“Texas allows hunting from helicopters, and Louisiana mirrored much of their regulations,” LaCour added.
In addition agricultural damage, feral hogs can also pass along diseases like swine brucellosis and leptospirosis, which can be contracted by humans, and pseudo rabies, which can be passed to dogs especially hunting dogs that are at risk of being bitten by the animals
“There has been a little increase in the number of hogs in Louisiana with swine brucellosis,” LaCour said. “It is contagious to humans if they are cut when cleaning a hog or if they consumed undercooked meat.”
LaCour suggested taking precautions when handling raw hog meat, including wearing rubber gloves, avoiding the hog’s bodily fluids, washing the cleaning utensils with hot water and bleach and cooking wild hog meat properly.
Ready to run
The hunting trip began around 9 p.m. with gearing the dogs up with GPS tracking collars and putting a protective vest on Bubba to keep hogs from biting or goring him with their tusks. From their meeting place, the caravan of hunters on ATVs and UTVs took off on dirt roads that cut through a never ending maze of rice lakes.
After spotting the dogs sniffing, Alexander stopped to check the wind’s direction before leading the group down a levee between a rice field and a wooded area. The hunter set two of his cur dogs loose, and the animals ran off into the dark before diving into the woods. While Alexander watched where the dogs were headed on his GPS, another hunter pulled up a map of the area on a cell phone to see if there were any trails or roadways near where the dogs were tracking.
Several barks were heard from the wooded area, and the remaining dogs on the back of Alexander’s UTV began to wiggle and whine. As the barks moved deeper into the woods, the hunters loaded up and followed a trail into the trees.
The train of hunters soon stopped, and everyone gathered around Alexander as he looked at his GPS.
“I like to stay about 300 yards behind the dogs and let them do their work,” he said. “It’s likely a boar hog. They hang out alone. We would have heard them on one if it was a bunch of hogs.”
The hunters remained in the area for several more minutes, waiting for a bark or a change in the manner of barking from Alexander’s dogs.
Alexander started hog hunting about eight years ago with a friend who ran the animals using dogs, and Alexander now owns 13 hunting dogs of his own.
“I hunt all over, wherever farmers need me at, sometimes four times a week,” Alexander said. “The hogs are bad from Rayne to Kinder, and I’ve got people calling me from north of Ville Platte, too.”
“Trapping is an effective way to control hogs. Dogs can the run hogs out (off the property), but they will always come back. You have to stay to stay on top of the problem once you see hogs on your property.”
Alexander said he doesn’t charge for his hog removal services, “but I’ll take donations of bags of dog food,” he said, laughing.
Brown said feral hogs are also a big problem between Eunice and Basile.
“It’s the worst there — as far as I’ve seen — with damage and numbers,” Brown said. “I’d like to see more hog hunters. I think that might put a dent in the problem. I’d like to see as many hunters hunting them as possible.”
For the next two and a half hours the five hunters tailed the dogs, stopping to track them and moving along with them. Barks were often heard from the canines, just not the barks the hunters were hoping for, and not the type of bark to warrant unleashing Bubba.
“If you set too many dogs on a hog, the boar will just run and run,” Alexander said. “With two dogs, they have a buddy with them.”
“They yap more at night, too, because they can’t see that well. They smell the hog and think it’s right there.”
At 12:30 a.m., the hunters arrived in an opening between two heavily wooded areas, and Alexander set a third cur loose after checking the movement of the other two dogs on his GPS and hearing barks from the dogs. The way the canines were moving it was likely they would be passing right through the woods right in front of the hunters. Alexander unloaded Bubba and the remaining cur and he, Brown and the Pitres made their way into the woods with the leashed dogs to wait until they heard the other dogs passing them.
“We need to hear some noise,” Alexander said. “There’s no reason for the hog to cross the bayou when he can keep running north.”
“If we get three dogs on it, they can hammer it, but Tick is trailing.”
Not a whisper of a breeze was heard through the trees, and when Alexander checked his GPS, the dogs had passed the hunters and were headed back to a roadway to the camp.
“Let’s see which way they head,” Alexander said. “If they turn toward the truck, the hunt is over.”
And turn they did, signaling the end of the night for the hunters.
“That’s the way it goes with hog hunting,” Brown said. “It’s sink or swim.”
Four days later
Brown, Alexander and several other hunters returned to the property just a few nights later and spotted 25 hogs on the property, including sows, boars and piglets.
“We spotted one of the boars about 800 to 1,000 yards away,” Brown said. “I climbed up on a farm tank and spotted him by himself. We shot him and wounded several others that scattered when we shot at them.”
Brown estimated that the boar weighed about 150 to 160 pounds.
“Pigs bounce around,” Alexander added. “Other hunters with dogs move them around, too, and that (earlier) night, another farmer had a well on at his farm. They hogs were likely there that night, getting fresh water. They were probably just north of where we were, and the landowner said he saw them on the northern end of his property.”
For hog removal services, call Alexander at 337-540-2571 or Brown at 337-580-0476.