Science guns down excuses for hog-dogging & hits rationale for deer culls
Merritt Clifton posted: " Science study suggests both hog-dogging rednecks & Ph.D.-holding bio-xenophobes are ecological ignoramuses WINNFIELD, Louisiana; CATALINA ISLAND, California––The 29th Annual Uncle Earl's Hog Dog Trials, coming up from March 18 through March 24,"
Science study suggests both hog-dogging rednecks & Ph.D.-holding bio-xenophobes are ecological ignoramuses
WINNFIELD, Louisiana; CATALINA ISLAND, California––The 29th Annual Uncle Earl's Hog Dog Trials, coming up from March 18 through March 24, 2024 at the Winnfield Fairgrounds will be, as always, a week-long orgy of bloodlust, featuring self-described and unabashed rednecks setting pit bulls on captive pigs.
Though named after former three-time Louisiana governor Earl Long (1895-1960), who was a pig hunter, Uncle Earl's Hog Dog Trials, begun in 1995, really has nothing whatever to do with Long or with honoring his memory.
Former Louisiana governor Earl K. Long. (Beth Clifton collage/ X photo)
Earl Long did not do that stuff
There is in truth no record among the more than 107,000 articles about Earl Long at NewspaperArchive.com of Long ever participating in a "hog dog trial," "hog-dogging," or anything of the sort. Earl Long practiced "fair chase" pig hunting, in which the pigs had a decent chance of escape.
But Uncle Earl's Hog Dog Trials claim a mantle of moral legitimacy from the pretext that feral pigs are purportedly ecologically problematic.
The scheduled massacre of about 1,000 mule deer on Catalina Island by sharpshooters in helicopters claims the same pretext, only uttered by Ph.D.-holding scientists with the Catalina Island Conservancy, National Park Service, and California Department of Fish & Wildlife.
(Beth Clifton photo)
"People don't visit Catalina Island to see the plants"
While Uncle Earl's Hog Dog Trials are annually welcomed in Winnfield, Louisiana, population 4,000, as about the only reason anyone would ever visit the place, the forthcoming Catalina Island deer killing appears to be opposed by most of the 4,000 island residents.
The Catalina Island economy depends on visitors, many and perhaps most of them wildlife-watchers.
Explained 26-year island resident Chuck Martin to Missael Soto of NBC Los Angeles, "They're trying to preserve the plants that are indigenous to the island, but people don't come here to see the plants."
Goat eats poison oak. (Beth Clifton collage)
Catalina Island Conservancy kills everything "non-native"
Objects the Coalition Against the Slaughter of Catalina Deer, "Deer have been an integral part of the 48,000-acre island's culture, history and economy for nearly one hundred years," having been introduced during the Great Depression, along with pigs, to stimulate sport hunting.
The Catalina Island Conservancy, however, formed in 1972, by 1975 gained control of much of the 48,000-acre island and almost immediately set about exterminating "non-native" species by any means possible.
Cattle, horses, bison brought for film use in 1924, black buck antelope, wild turkeys, pigeons, European starlings, house sparrows, bullfrogs, feral cats, rats, and pigs all have previously been targeted, variously shot from helicopters, poisoned, and occasionally rounded up and shipped off the island alive.
The most numerous casualties whose remains anyone counted were 12,000 pigs and 3,000 goats.
(Beth Clifton photo)
Killing the island wildlife in order to save it
"What they're trying to do is not just remove the deer from there; they're actually trying to restore the island," California State University at Fullerton biology professor Paul Stapp told Missael Soto of NBC.
"There have been lots of studies on the impacts of vegetation and how those impacts then affect erosion and how they affect the wildlife species that rely on those native habitats," Stapp recited.
But Robert Kröger, a Ph.D. restoration ecologist and executive director of the pro-hunting organization Blood Origins, countered that "The science does not support that to protect native plants, and meet recovery objectives, the number of deer––a species that have social and recreational values on the island––should be zero."
(Beth Clifton photo)
"Deer populations have been trending downward"
Kröger pointed out that Paul Stapp's own study "Status of the Introduced Mule Deer Population on Catalina Island," funded by the Catalina Island Conservancy, "shows that since surveys [by Stapp and associates] began in 2012, deer populations have been trending downward," with no increase in killing by hunters."
Apart from that, though, as an Oxford University media release summarized on February 1, 2024, "New research published today in the journal Science has concluded that eradicating animals on the basis that they are not native in order to protect plant species can be a flawed practice costing millions of dollars, and resulting in the slaughter of millions of healthy wild animals.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Impacts not studied with appropriate controls
"Introduced large herbivores, or megafauna," explained the Oxford University media release, "are claimed to have distinct and harmful ecological impacts, including damaging sensitive plants and habitats, reducing native plant diversity, and facilitating introduced plants.
"However, up to now these impacts have been studied without comparison to a proper control: native megafauna.
"The new analysis, carried out by researchers at Aarhus University, Denmark, and the University of Oxford, United Kingdom, compared the effects of large mammal species listed as native and introduced, respectively, in 221 studies from across the world.
Tule elk. (Beth Clifton photo)
"Indistinguishable effects"
"They found that the two groups of animals had indistinguishable effects on both the abundance and diversity of native plants."
Asserted study co-author Jeppe Kristensen, Ph.D., of the Environmental Change Institute at Oxford University, "We do not find evidence to support the claim that native large herbivores have different impacts on ecosystems, specifically plant communities in this case, than their non-native counterparts. Therefore, we should study the ecological roles these animals—native or not—play in ecosystems, rather than judge them based on their belonging."
The study, Functional traits—not nativeness—shape the effects of large mammalian herbivores on plant communities, did not entirely exonerate deer, either on Catalina Island or anywhere else.
Bison. (Beth Clifton photo)
Leave the bison there
"The researchers did find that the traits of megafauna influenced how they affect plants, regardless of nativeness," the Oxford University media release acknowledged.
"In particular, small-bodied picky-eaters, such as deer, tended to suppress plant diversity while larger, generalist bulk-feeders such as buffalo tended to increase plant diversity. This is because large, bulk-feeders are physically unable to selectively feed on their favorite plants, and are therefore more likely to suppress dominant species, making space for smaller sub-dominant plant species."
Translation: the best way to counter the alleged effects of deer on Catalina Island might have been to leave the cows, pigs, and horses alone, along with the bison, who have not yet been culled to extirpation.
(Beth Clifton photo)
Pablo Escobar's hippos
Explained another co-author of the study, Scott Carroll, to Kathy Keatley Garvey of the University of California Agriculture & Nature Resources periodical Bug Squad: Happenings in the insect world, "Paleontological analysis found that, amazingly, introduced herbivores– including Pablo Escobar's escaped Colombian hippos– often match the functional traits of extinct natives better than do those missing species' closest living native relatives.
"In this way, the 'out-of-place' make the world more similar to the pre-extinction past. The 'shoot-first- and-ask-questions later' approach as a maxim is as reckless as it sounds."
"As for feral hogs in North America," wrote Kathy Keatley Garvey, "Carroll said their rooting increases tree growth and attracts bird flocks, like the ecological work of their extinct ancestors. Likewise, feral horses and burros, known for their well-digging behavior, are replacing the original American horses, who went extinct 12,000 years ago.
(Beth Clifton collage)
A visitor from outer space
Suggested yet another co-author, Arizona State University doctoral candidate in biology Erick J. Lundgren, "One way to talk about this is: whether a visitor from outer space, who didn't know the history, could tell what megafauna are native or introduced, based solely on their effects."
Megafauna, explained Saul Elbein of The Hill, "refers to animals weighing more than 44 kilograms, or about 100 pounds — a key factor, because much of the data on the malignant nature of 'invasives' in general rests on research done on small animals, plants, and pathogens.
"In the case of big animals, however, if our alien visitor couldn't tell the difference," Lundgren told Elbein, "then nativeness isn't actually a helpful way to understand how ecosystems work."
(Beth Clifton collage)
"Quasi-religious perception"
Summarized Elbein, "The study argues against widely held beliefs about whether invasive species are harmful — or what Lundgren described as the quasi-religious perception that some species inherently belong in a given landscape and others don't.
"That belief is the driving force behind a wave of expensive and often futile campaigns since the 1990s that eradicate species including feral hogs in Texas, wild horses across the American West, and donkeys and camels in Australia."
So what about feral pigs in Texas, where as Elbein mentioned, "State officials proposed seeding the landscape with the poison warfarin to kill feral hogs," since aggressive hunting has accomplished nothing to reduce the feral pig population.
Wrote Elbein of the findings by Kristensen, Lundgren, Carroll, and other co-authors, "Native pigs in the forests of Eurasia do just what their feral cousins in America and Polynesia do: They root up plants, eat crops, defecate on the landscapes and create big muddy wallows in their attempts to cool themselves — all without the slightest regard for a farmer's desire to run a neat, profitable agricultural operation from the same space.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Pigs vs. bison
"But from another perspective, these actions can be seen as environmentally beneficial — and when those animals are natives, they often are portrayed that way. In disturbing existing vegetation, for example, the pigs also create space for new plant growth. Their poop can lead to algal blooms in waterways, but that's because it is so nutrient-rich — meaning it is an important source of natural fertilizer, not least for the seeds that pigs spread the same way.
"Their wallows are essentially tiny ponds that can help trap and retain water in dry landscapes — something that ecologists see as beneficial when it is done by, say, bison."
Wrote Houston Chronicle science reporter Ariana Garcia, risking making herself unpopular with Texas pig hunters, who claim feral pigs do about $2.5 billion a year in damages across the U.S., "Lundgren noted that feral hogs tend to increase native plant diversity in both their native and introduced ranges. 'Yet these impacts are described with completely different language depending on whether we think pigs, and their effects, belong,' he said."
Dogo Argentino. (Beth Clifton collage)
Hog-dogging
This circles back around to the upcoming 29th Annual Uncle Earl's Hog Dog Trials.
"While dog fighting is the most noted 'sport' involving pit bulls," wrote Los Angeles blogger Phyllis M. Daugherty on February 26, 2024, "there is another equally cruel pig-hunting activity known as "hog-dogging" for which this breed is trained and coveted.
"And, California governor Gavin Newsom just signed a bill that allows 'hog-dogging' to be increased," Daugherty charged.
"Hog-dogging," explained Daugherty, "involves the brutal hunting and injury to feral pigs inflicted by several pit bulls or other bully-type dogs––Dogo Argentinos and Cane Corsos may also be used––who pin down the hog and brutally maul it while it's still alive—after a hunter has used bolt cutters to remove the captured pig's tusks so that the pig cannot defend itself.
"The hunter then goes in for the kill, which is accomplished by stabbing the pig repeatedly."
(Beth Clifton collage)
Pig trucking
The bill signed by Newsom, California SB 856, according to the Bay City News will "loosen regulations and lower hunting fees for killing wild pigs, who have been found in 56 of the state's 58 counties," with an estimated state population of about 40,000.
Rationalized California Fish & Game Commission advisor Ari Cornman, "The growing number of pigs isn't just a California problem—they were found in 544 counties nationwide 40 years ago, but are in 1,915 counties as of 2020."
But, while state game agencies eagerly welcome the opportunity to sell licenses for a new hunting pursuit, no agency seems to be addressing the real reason for feral pig proliferation: the mid-to-late 20th transition from transporting pigs to slaughter primarily by train, to transporting pigs primarily by truck, while also raising and hauling around twice as many pigs as the mid-20th century traffic involved.
Hog-dogger holds squealing pig up by the feet for pit bulls to attack. (Beth Clifton collage from YouTube video.)
Prosecutable cruelty
Hog-dogging became recognized as prosecutable cruelty in several states, and laws against it were strengthened, for several years after then-Florida attorney general Bob Butterworth in May 1994 held it to be a form of illegal animal fighting.
While hunting pigs with dogs was, and remains, legal almost everywhere, setting dogs on confined pigs, even in the name of "training," is typically permitted only as "hog baying," under rules prohibiting actual contact between the dogs and the pigs they corner in chase pens.
Those rules might actually be followed at the 29th Annual Uncle Earl's Hog Dog Trials, where non-hog-doggers may be watching.
But where non-hog-doggers are not watching, and law enforcement shows little interest in enforcing humane laws, such trials can become unrestrained mayhem.
(Beth Clifton photo)
"The hog sqeals wildly"
Wrote Cronkite News Service reporter Michelle Price for the Tucson Citizen in 2009, describing scenes documented in 2004 by Yavapai County Sheriff's Department investigators:
"Trained to attack, the dog corners a wild hog, then lunges and sinks his teeth into the hog's ear. The hog squeals wildly, drowning out the cheers of people who paid to see this. After the dog holds on for the required three seconds, the owner pries it off and this round of hog-dog fighting is over. For the hog, the fight won't end until too much of her flesh has been torn off for her to play bait."
Beth & Merritt Clifton.
Elaborated Jonathan Blaque for LiveJournal in 2005, "Hog-dog fighting comes from hog hunting. When hunting feral hogs, dogs fall generally into two camps: 'bay' dogs who only corner the hog, and 'catch' dogs who actually clamp onto the feral hogs with their jaws."
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