Rat poison vs. feral hogs a hot debate
Lawsuit seeks to prevent use as pig pesticide
DEVINE — Down a dirt road from cattle lolling on a feedlot, trucks pull into the Southern Wild Game plant carrying feral pigs trapped across the Lone Star State.
They are unloaded into pens and hosed down before being sent into the plant to be processed into steaks and chops, all under the watch of U.S. Department of Agriculture and European Union-licensed inspectors. The meat leaves the plant boxed and ready for distribution to discerning diners overseas.
While wild hogs — the most prolific large mammal on earth — may be a nuisance to Texas’ farms, ranches and, increasingly, cities, the meat is considered a healthy delicacy across the Atlantic. With venison prices high, boar meat — or sanglier as its known in France — is a pretty hot commodity.
That may change as Texas Department of Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller signed an emergency rule Feb. 21 allowing a rat poison to be used to cull the feral hog population, which causes an estimated $55 million in damages in Texas alone. The key ingredient in Kaput Feral Hog Bait — and in Miller’s selfdeclared “hog apocalypse” — is warfarin. In low doses, it’s used as an anticoagulant to help prevent strokes and heart attacks in humans. But in high doses, warfarin is used for rat control.
Game processors, hunters and trappers across Texas are watching to see how a lawsuit challenging the rule plays out.
Turns fat deposits blue
A spokeswoman at Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, which runs a statewide program on feral hog control, said the service was researching the product.
“We are exploring the benefits and risks associated with warfarin-based products such as Kaput and expect to eventually add this control method to the assortment of management options we educate landowners about,” AgriLife spokeswoman Lara Burhenn said.
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, which regulates hunting and trapping, posted a message on its website saying the department “has not yet evaluated the risks and impacts this toxicant may have on non-target species when used as a means to control feral hog populations.”
Scimetrics, the Colorado-based company that developed Kaput, says pigs are so sensitive to warfarin that the hog bait uses a concentration that’s only a fifth of what’s found in rodent bait. Warfarin residues in hog liver are below 5 milligrams per kilogram, the company said, compared with the daily dose of warfarin as a blood thinner of between two and 10 milligrams. What’s more, the bait turns fat deposits of the hog blue, making it easy to detect if the animal has eaten it, Scimetrics said.
“The scare with the hunters … they jumped the gun because they didn’t read the facts about warfarin,” Scimetrics President Richard Poche said. “It’s been around for human use since 1954. It revolutionized rodent control.”
Texas the roll-out state
While Louisiana also has registered with the EPA to use Kaput, Texas was to be the roll-out state, Poche said. He said the product was set to be released in late April or early May, but that those plans were now on hold until the “dust settles in Texas.”
“We’re strongly supporting Texas’ take on it … that it be handled by people that are trained and really know how to use a product such as this,” he said.
The EPA approved Kaput in January, and Miller made his announcement Feb. 21. Under his emergency rule, the TDA approved Kaput as a state limited-use pesticide, which means it can only be bought and administered under the direction of licensed applicators.
Will Herring, owner of the Wild Boar Meats processing plant in Hubbard, buys live and dead hogs to process for pet food and was preparing to build a bigger plant when news about Kaput went viral.
On March 1 he filed a lawsuit against Miller and the Texas Department of Agriculture.
“Texas currently has a vibrant, growing economic segment focused on hunting feral hogs and the consumption and use of feralhog meat and byproducts,” according to the complaint filed with in a state district court in Austin. “A warfarin-poisoning program will substantially reduce or destroy those businesses, including Wild Boar Meats.”
State District Judge Jan Soifer in Austin on March 2 issued a temporary restraining order suspending Miller’s rule until a court hearing scheduled for March 30.