Razorback Ethics

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Sep 22, 2013
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Okay...so you're the guy who uses everything, mounts everything, eats everything and then this happens. You shoot a boar and it's just nasty. The quarters just stink, you don't wanna eat it but you don't wanna waste it either (wanton waste violation). So what do you do?
 
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I recommend that you get over it. A wild hog is an exception (which you just discovered). If you’ve killed a damaging, invasive species, you’re not in violation of wasting the meat. By definition, meat is supposed to be edible. Now, I don’t eat pork anyway, but that’s beside the point. Look at it like “pest control”. I would argue that is effectively what killing a feral hog is.

Here’s another perspective. What if you killed an elk and the backstraps had these cancerous looking lesions on it? Would you keep and eat that meat? I don’t think your current situation is much different. Do you?



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Where's Bruce?
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While I agree with most of your postulations...we're in California and common sense takes a backseat here. Hogs are considered a big game animal. That is, unless & until the Feds determine they are in need of eradication in a specific county...then they magically become an invasive species free for unrestrained removal by paid agents. It's crazy. Saw this in San Diego county some years ago...traps everywhere.
 
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If you view the feral pig as big game, I would say you should view it like spoiled meet. You could perhaps feed pets with the meat.

Pigs are minimally regulated in most states. All you need is a basic hunting license in Texas. Beyond that, the restrictions are almost nonexistent. They impact other game species (whitetail, quail, turkey, etc.), the habitat, and agriculture far more than their benefit.


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Mike7

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In Hawaii some of the locals soaked the pigs and goats in ice chests full of ice and water for a couple of days before slow cooking them in the ground, but I have no idea if this was the main reason that they ended up with tasty meat.
 
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Once the hide is off it shouldn't smell bad. If it does I would toss it. If its bad and you properly cared for the meat then its not wanton waste on your part.
Out of hundreds I had two bad ones. The first I shot with a bow in 90 degree weather and it took 5 hrs to recover and the other had some nasty wounds that must have been infected. They both smelled bad after skinning. I kept the first one and tried cooking it but it stunk up the house. So I tossed all of it out of the freezer.
 
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Anything over about 50 pounds gets left in the woods or donated to someone who needs it enough they don't mind eating it. I don't look at pigs as waste. We used to trap them, take them home, cut them, and feed them for a few weeks. They were fine eating then but transporting live pigs was outlawed in Alabama so can't do it anymore.
 

jspradley

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Does the meat itself stink?

I've eaten meat from a nasty old boar and it wasn't bad once the skin came off... give it a shot and if it's just not edible then toss it, watch out feeding wild pork to dogs unless you cook it first. Trichinosis is nasty stuff.

I had an exotic antelope in my freezer (go Texas! lol) that was the only meat I have ever had that just tasted bad, it was injured and I'm thinking that had something to do with it. I did my best and powered through a good bit of it but I just couldn't make it taste good and ended up tossing a good bit of the meat.

Even though I'm all for eradication of pigs to me they are still animals worthy of respecting as much as reasonably possible, just do your best and that's all we can do
 

Shrek

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I toss most all stinking boars but there are things to do to help. First , cut their nuts out ASAP. For the first time since I was a kid I kept a stinking boar this spring. I cut his nuts and had the butcher hang him for 28 days. Had the whole hog made into sausage. It’s ok as long as I cook it on the grill. I still get a tiny whiff of boar if I fry it in a pan inside. It’s the last boar I’ll ever keep. Let them lay and shoot coyotes off the carcass.
 
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Have you tried brining it? I usually sell the big boars and eat the younger sows, but I've had good luck with brining the big boars in the past.
 

Moose2367

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You might've cut one of the glands while processing it, which then taints the rest of the meat you touched with the knife.
It's only a pig, not exactly a shortage of them and an invasive species in most parts of the world. There's more pigs here in Australia than there are people.
 
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Guys here shoot so many that honestly, they just dig a hole and bury them, or compost them. (or leave them lay for the buzzards)

Maybe take a massive powerwasher and clean it up some. Might take the stink away enough to dress it out.
 

Azone

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If your shooting one for the wall, odds are the meat is gonna taste like hell. I've had to toss a few that were just down right nasty smelling and full of puncture wounds from fighting with other hogs.

The best and the worst tasting pork I've ever had has come from wild hogs though. Mid to late spring when the hills are still green out here usually produces some great tasting meat as does late summer when the hogs have been hitting the vineyards eating wine grapes and munching on the barley that's planted in between the rows of grapes.

Unless I'm out helping with a depredation permit I never target boars for the reason we are discussing, they usually taste horrible. I have had a few younger ones that were not bad but I've had enough crappy ones to really not want to shoot boars anymore. 200lb and under sows are all that interest me anymore when shooting hogs for the table. There is just not a marinade or sausage recipe out there that covers up the taste of rank, nasty old boar.
 
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You might've cut one of the glands while processing it, which then taints the rest of the meat you touched with the knife.
It's only a pig, not exactly a shortage of them and an invasive species in most parts of the world. There's more pigs here in Australia than there are people.
That's it, mate.

Here in Australia I have a steady supply of goat and venison, so I don't stress too much about the pigs. If we shoot some and they look good and smell fine, we take them to eat. If they don't, we leave them there to rot. In most cases it's more about how many we can remove for the landowner than it is about filling our freezer.

Having said that, we ate a wild pork stir fry the other night and it was fantastic.
 
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