Bill would let landowners lease rights to chopper assaults on feral hogs

Lawmakers seemed open Tuesday to launching an aerial assault against the feral hog menace in Texas, but it's just not as easy as shooting a pig in a poke. Rep. Sid Miller, R-Stephenville, has written the pork-chopper bill, which would allow landowners to lease their property to hunters using helicopters to thin the estimated 2 million feral hogs causing havoc in virtually every county. Currently, landowners can only rent helicopters and do their own shooting, but this would let them sell the rights and recoup some of their losses, said Miller, speaking before the House Culture, Recreation and Tourism Committee. But lawmakers had concerns that this could turn into a slippery sty and left the bill pending. Would feral pigs become a game animal, where hunters would have to dispose of the carcasses, abide by a season and other hunting rules, lawmakers wondered? And let's just say chasing a pig at 100 mph doesn't make it easy to stop at a property boundary...Dallas Morning News