No public study available on effect of pesticide on feral hogs

A Texas meat processor who questions a government-approved bait that kills feral hogs charges there’s no public research on the product.

Will Herring, owner of the Hubbard-based Wild Boar Meat Company, which makes hog meat into pet food, has said he fears the product’s active ingredient — warfarin, long known as a rat poison and prescribed to humans as a blood thinner — will damage his business.

Also, Herring said, “There’s not one public study, and by public study I mean a study available to the public, that has looked at using the product Kaput to poison feral hogs.”

Herringpersuaded a state district judge to issue a temporary order putting a hold on state rules approving Kaput’s use by state-licensed pesticide applicators. State Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, has filed a bill barring the state from registering any lethal pesticide, including warfarin, for feral hog control unless a state agency or university performs and publishes a scientific study weighing the pesticide’s environmental and economic effects.

Both moves happened after Sid Miller, the state agriculture commissioner, announced the Texas Department of Agriculture would issue rules limiting Kaput’s sale and use to licensed individuals.

We decided to put Herring’s statement to the Texas Truth- O-Meter.

When we inquired, the state Agriculture Department emailed us a spreadsheet indicating that Colorado-based Scimetrics, the company poised to vend Kaput, fielded $136,854 in research grants from the Agriculture Department from 2013 into 2017. All told in 2016-17, the agency awarded $802,500 to fight feral hogs; that counts funds awarded to coun-