Hog catching ban
Louisiana is looking to ban hog catching:
A Louisiana state legislator is trying to outlaw a violent spectator sport: fights pitting vicious dogs against wild hogs.
Rep. Warren Triche, a Democrat from Thibodaux, has introduced a bill that would ban the bloodiest forms of “hog-doggin,” as the pig-versus-canine duels are known in the rural corners of his state.
“My motivation is that it is an absolute cruelty, and damned well sadistic,” Triche told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.
The bill passed the Louisiana House on Tuesday after Triche showed bloody videos of squealing feral hogs being attacked by specially trained dogs. But it must now go the state Senate where Triche fears it may be mired in the mud by opponents friendly to the rural contests.
“This is a hillbilly attitude. You could film ‘Deliverance 2’ and ‘3’ with this kind of attitude,” Triche said, referring to the 1972 film that depicted the ordeal suffered by vacationing city dwellers at the hands of a vicious band of rural residents.
First, it’s probably not a good idea to refer to your constituents as hillbillies, but that’s a separate issue. The article misleads as to what hog catching really is. It’s not a fight. I’ve seen hog catching events. Essentially, a dog runs up to a wild boar that is kept in a pen, grabs it by the ear or nose, and holds it down long enough for the dog’s owner to run up behind the pig and lift it’s back legs. This is done to show that the dog has control of the pig. It’s not a fight. The obvious comparison is a rodeo. Sure, the pigs don’t enjoy it but calves don’t like being hog tied.
The purpose of this is to prepare the dogs to actually go into the wild and hunt feral pigs, which are considered a nuisance. And it has nothing to do with vicious dogs, it has to do with training them to accomplish a task that is arguably brutal.
A humane society was trying to shut one such show down a while back. I’ve never taken Politically Incorrect Dog hog catching, but I’ve seen his parents do it. It’s impressive watching an 80 pound dog tackle a 200 pound pig.
Hunting feral pigs with guns is OK. With dogs, apparently not so much.
April 29th, 2004 at 11:05 am
This from the state that labels chickens as plants so that it can have legal cockfighting? The mind boggles.
April 29th, 2004 at 11:42 am
Seriously, they classify chickens as veggies? I guess a brocolli vs. brocolli match would be pretty unexciting.
April 29th, 2004 at 3:47 pm
I’m from Louisiana and there aren’t any hillbillys here. In the southern part of the state you find a lot of Cajuns. In the northern part of the state you find a lot of rednecks. We don’t have many hills in Louisiana. The hillbillys are farther north, like in Arkansas.
This guy is just a plain ole idiot.
If you have never hunted hogs from horseback, you just have no idea how dangerous it can be. A feral hog will have tusks three or four inches long and can kill a good dog (or a good horse) in just a short time. Some really knowledgeable people say that hogs are almost as smart as humans, which I take to mean that some hogs are smarter than some humans.
I don’t go to chicken fights, and I don’t go to hog-doggins. No my cup of tea, but I don’t really see the harm in either one.
April 29th, 2004 at 5:34 pm
As a west-central Louisiana redneck, I’d have to say that, to most people, we’re probably indistinguishable from a hillbilly.
April 29th, 2004 at 6:56 pm
Hillbillies?!?!? The highest point in the whole state is 535 feet above sea level.
This guy is just running his mouth. This is the cr*p that our legislature is doing while real people are out working for a living…
He’s apparently learned about wild hogs from watching too much Porky Pig. A feral hog is the most dangerous animal in the state, and this is a state with alligators! Exactly how does he propose to catch these hogs?