txbhunter1
05-25-2009, 08:30 AM
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Texas 'pork chopper' bill advances
Posted by Network Creator (http://www.ilovethegreatoutdoors.com/xn/detail/u_2e2ezuihn8wp1) on May 20, 2009 at 7:22am in Hunting (http://www.ilovethegreatoutdoors.com/forum/categories/hunting-1/listForCategory)
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Bill to encourage hunting hogs from helicopters advances in Texas House
By ROBERT T. GARRETT / The Dallas Morning News
rtgarrett@dallasnews.com
AUSTIN – A bill to encourage more hunting of feral hogs from helicopters drew several Democrats' scorn but advanced in the House late Thursday.
Rep. Sid Miller, R-Stephenville, said his bill 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 Miller's "pork-chopper" bill would let them sell the rights.
"The problem continues to grow and ... it is out of hand," he said.
The House tentatively approved the bill on a voice vote, and it could come up for a final vote as early as today.
Miller's original bill would have changed sport-hunting sections of current law. But he rewrote it at the last minute to make transfers of helicopter hog-hunting rights acceptable in a subchapter devoted to hunting and fishing licenses for scientific research.
The new language says the hogs have to be "depredating" – meaning plundering or pillaging, presumably crops. But Rep. Kristi Thibaut, D-Houston, complained that Miller had changed nothing. She tried unsuccessfully to limit the hunting-rights transfers to small rural counties.
Rep. Eddie Lucio III, D-Brownsville, offered an amendment to prohibit price-gouging by landowners selling their rights.
Saying he understood the need to control the hog population, Lucio said: "What I don't agree with is selling for a profit ... hunts from a helicopter. That in my mind is not the traditional hunting that I grew up with."
Georgetown Republican Rep. Dan Gattis, shot back: "We're not looking for population control, we're looking for population eradication."
Lucio replied, "Call it what it is, it's sport hunting from a helicopter."
The House brushed away his proposal, 97-32.
Texas 'pork chopper' bill advances
Posted by Network Creator (http://www.ilovethegreatoutdoors.com/xn/detail/u_2e2ezuihn8wp1) on May 20, 2009 at 7:22am in Hunting (http://www.ilovethegreatoutdoors.com/forum/categories/hunting-1/listForCategory)
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[/list]
Bill to encourage hunting hogs from helicopters advances in Texas House
By ROBERT T. GARRETT / The Dallas Morning News
rtgarrett@dallasnews.com
AUSTIN – A bill to encourage more hunting of feral hogs from helicopters drew several Democrats' scorn but advanced in the House late Thursday.
Rep. Sid Miller, R-Stephenville, said his bill 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 Miller's "pork-chopper" bill would let them sell the rights.
"The problem continues to grow and ... it is out of hand," he said.
The House tentatively approved the bill on a voice vote, and it could come up for a final vote as early as today.
Miller's original bill would have changed sport-hunting sections of current law. But he rewrote it at the last minute to make transfers of helicopter hog-hunting rights acceptable in a subchapter devoted to hunting and fishing licenses for scientific research.
The new language says the hogs have to be "depredating" – meaning plundering or pillaging, presumably crops. But Rep. Kristi Thibaut, D-Houston, complained that Miller had changed nothing. She tried unsuccessfully to limit the hunting-rights transfers to small rural counties.
Rep. Eddie Lucio III, D-Brownsville, offered an amendment to prohibit price-gouging by landowners selling their rights.
Saying he understood the need to control the hog population, Lucio said: "What I don't agree with is selling for a profit ... hunts from a helicopter. That in my mind is not the traditional hunting that I grew up with."
Georgetown Republican Rep. Dan Gattis, shot back: "We're not looking for population control, we're looking for population eradication."
Lucio replied, "Call it what it is, it's sport hunting from a helicopter."
The House brushed away his proposal, 97-32.