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get allowed to use shot guns for pigs in, ah, urban areas, like you said, you know, and
<br />every, I wish the chief left before we got to the point is, we can’t shoot ‘em, we can’t
<br />snare ‘em, they’re, they’re intelligent animals, they get trap wary real quick and then
<br />everyone complains about the pigs, how much of this do you think is self-inflicted?
<br />
<br />JT: It’s, it’s a good question, you know, with your comment about like the, the cattle and
<br />pigs and all that, yeah, we talk all the time about we made our state friendly for animals
<br />agriculture and that includes the pigs because they’re the descendant of a mix of things
<br />but part of that is domestic animals, and, so, for us, you know, the cat’s out of the bag,
<br />so to speak, in that we could not take away those things on the landscape that make it
<br />amenable for the pigs and still have animal agriculture, so for those ranchers, there’s
<br />just no way to do that, and so it’s difficult for us because we want to get rid of the pigs
<br />but as you say, it’s every tool in the tool kit, that’s why we continue to do research on
<br />new tools, that’s why we worked on toxicants for so long, and I will say in the long run
<br />there’s some work on a pig specific contraceptive and, and it they ever get it there I
<br />think this will make the difference for urban areas especially, you know, a pig is gonna
<br />live or seven years and if you had a contraceptive that was genetically tailored to pigs
<br />where they could eat a medicate feed and it makes them permanently sterile for the
<br />rest of their life – that would be something where in the meantime they’re causing
<br />damages – it’s true – we keep doing what we’re doing to try to kill them but long term
<br />we know they’ll eventually disappear – that is one thing that I think for urban areas will
<br />make a difference – but that’s down the road still quite a ways. No one’s ever been able
<br />to, to crack that nut so to speak, your question or your comment about the E. coli by the
<br />way – and it if ever comes up where somebody says, you know, the water’s high in e-coli
<br />– you can tell the difference between cattle E. coli, pig E. coli, human E. coli and fecal
<br />coliforms – that stuff is all easy to tell on a test so if anybody ever says it’s one thing or
<br />another, ask them to get specific and tell you which one it’s from or show you the panel,
<br />the percentages – we’re dealing with this in some coastline in Texas right now where
<br />we’ve got E. coli contamination in an estuary and we’re having to look at the breakdown
<br />of how much is cattle, how much is human, how much is pig.
<br />
<br />BL: \[Unclear\] yeah, I just got a recall about COSTCO E. coli carrots, and somebody died
<br />\[unclear\]. So, you know, it’s an issue, yeah, being killed by a carrot \[unclear\].
<br />
<br />JT: Yeah, no, oh, absolutely, I mean down here the biosecurity standards for spinach
<br />growers now or if you see a pig track in a spinach field, till it under. You know, this is just
<br />not, the risk is, is very high.
<br />
<br />BL: Yeah, like I said, I grew up when pig hunting was the thing and ranchers were charging
<br />$300 and, it was quite the elite thing and, you know, and we’ve got farmers that won’t
<br />let people hunt on their property – they bitch about it – but they won’t let people in and
<br />hunt and then we’ve got everyone crying at the same thing – like Leilani, you know, I got
<br />everyone calling me – come get the pig – I can’t shoot ‘em, you know, and I, I don’t have
<br />time to be messing with a trap so, you know, until you guys elect politicians that are
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