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Porcupine down

As someone who farms and ranches for a living, there's certain critters I shoot on sight. It's a list, and some animal's life the state considers a varmint is less important to me than my income. At the top of that list is rabbits, nothing like having them destroy acres of wheat in a drought, then resort to eating the siding of your house, and the bark off your trees. Call it population control. And no, I'm not going to eat an animal that's starved to the point of eating my house. The hawks need easy meals from time to time too.
 
The weirdest thing I've ever seen with a porky was a few years ago in NE Montana goose and duck hunting (field with ground blinds). It was brutally cold that weekend, -36F when we started. BEST hunting ever- it was so cold that birds literally bombed right into the decoy spreads- they have to eat when it's that cold. Far right in the below picture- a big porky. He walked right by one of my friends who was laying in his ground blind- heading straight into the decoy spread. And I mean- RIGHT BY HIM. Scared the crap out of him.

B3W1uk5.jpg


We were hunting on tribal ground, so we stopped by the ranch house and gave the porky and a few geese to the native family. BTW- we all limited in an hour when the birds finally started flying.
 
Montana'eer said:
The weirdest thing I've ever seen with a porky was a few years ago in NE Montana goose and duck hunting (field with ground blinds). It was brutally cold that weekend, -36F when we started. BEST hunting ever- it was so cold that birds literally bombed right into the decoy spreads- they have to eat when it's that cold. Far right in the below picture- a big porky. He walked right by one of my friends who was laying in his ground blind- heading straight into the decoy spread. And I mean- RIGHT BY HIM. Scared the crap out of him.

B3W1uk5.jpg


We were hunting on tribal ground, so we stopped by the ranch house and gave the porky and a few geese to the native family. BTW- we all limited in an hour when the birds finally started flying.
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A friend told me that them big geese look like Cessna's landing when they flare to land!
LOL
 
Wallrat said:
You do understand that ranchers raise those cattle so that they can feed your family and theirs too…right? They may not get out to check on each cow every day. That's tough to do with several hundred head. I think you're being a bit tough on the man. My 2 cents.
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Hunting is none to popular with a large section of the general public, I suggest we need to ensure the optics are in our favour. Inadequate excuses to kill everything in sight doesn't cat ut, forget right & wrong we're talking PR.
 
That's hyperbole. Nobody is advocating for "killing everything in sight", or anything along the lines of this unhinged post:
"Don't agree killing something purely for some bizarre thrill gives all hunters a bad reputation! Protecting cattle is sincerely a pathetic excuse, Why not shoot everything in sight you know some bird may accidentally fly into a farm animal."
 
Wallrat said:
Nobody is advocating for "killing everything in sight"
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Quite literally, some ranchers have given me permission to hunt their property SPECIFICALLY under the condition that I shoot every single badger, skunk, prairie dog, racoon, coyote, rattler, and porcupine I see. I was given full explanations of why also, and it was all quite logical. For every one I see and shoot, there are 10 more somewhere else. I shoot relatively the same number, on all properties I have access to... every year. So by that, I figure those old timers were right, as they often are.

After having seen what one porcupine can do, in one winter, to a wonderful stand of pine trees... I understood perfectly why that mandate was given.

After seeing what happened when a racoon decided to jump up into a running combine... costing the farmer in excess of $20,000 to repair...

After seeing cattle down, calving, having the calf and the end of the cow being eaten alive by coyotes...

After having to help put down the neighbors wives favorite dog because it's now rabid due to skunk encounter...

After seeing a thousand acres of ground destroyed over and over again by prairie dogs...

After seeing a badger dig out enough corner posts and break enough horse/cow legs, or tear up farm dogs...

When you see the reality of what trying to coexist with nature looks like outside of a disney movie, you realize the food chain is nature. That's how it all works. There's a hierarchy to everything. Those that think they can live like Buddha and exist outside of the food chain, are in violation of natural law. They can only exist and survive at the burden of others. The very instant things get tough, their so-called principles will go right out the window. Just like an "atheist" will start praying as soon as the first bullet hits their leg. Reality is what it is... and dishonest men are those that think they can live outside the rules set forth at the beginning for how all this works. You see it every spring without fail, as some dingleberry gets gored by a bull or mauled by a bear while trying to take a selfie in our national parks.

You know... this all really comes down to 90%+ of the people that LOVE to comment about all of this... don't live where any of this happens. They don't have anything to manage in their suburb except their lawn. Their idea of a "farm" is their 20 acre "ranch." Yeah, super rural. lol Attempting to have a logical discussion with people about ranch/farm life with people that have no clue what that life is about is a comical endeavor. They won't get it. They can't. Every single year, in the spring... some of those folks try to settle in this area. The very next spring... their property and most of their belongings are up for auction. They can't deal with the reality of existence here.

Me? I wish the winters were even worse. I wish the summer storms were harder. I want the line between "us" and "them" more defined and farther away than it already is.


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My somewhat snippy post was more because the poster is suggesting that we're shooting animals for "fun!", instead of trying to understand that we might have a logical reason. I can't abide willful ignorance. The West is full of various pests that can't coexist with people, ranches and cattle. They sometimes have to be removed. Get over it I'm not the least concerned with what anti-gun nuts or anti-hunting loons think.
 
I decided I currently have the smartest dog I've ever had. She's a Lab Pyrenees mix and the other day I came home and she had 1, yes 1 quill in her nose. I'm used to the pin cushion effect when it comes to dogs and porcupines. Same people making assumptions about intentions are the same hunter/outdoorsman supporting banning trapping, and probably think our ancestors only wiped out the wolves for "the fun" of it.....Absolutely no thoughts of an actual reason for killing them, or caring to be educated.....most of them anyway!
 
Coyote Shadow Tracker said:
REALLY! saw a few posts that Ranchers are loosing their income $$$$ due to Porcupines sticking quills in the cattle's nose and then they can't graze to eat. First of all, Porcupines are not going to attack cattle and cattle are not going to chase a porcupines like a dog.
For the $100,000 prize show us where cattle die from being attacked by porcupines.

AND the discussion about DOGS getting quilled. The dog attacks the porcupine, the more quills in the dog's mouth shows the more the dog attacked the porcupine.

I had my best friend Tobias (my childhood dog) with quills in his mouth twice. The first time was about 40 quills, the second time was about 200. Spent about 1 1/2 hours with the vet pulling them out of his mouth, face and throat. The more the quills that hurt him the more he bite/attacked the porcupine.
This was MY FAULT. Should not have let Tobias roam at night. 75-50 years ago people let their animals roam OR kept them on a chain which was the cruelest way you have a dog. and still is.. We had a back porch and that is where Tobias got fed and slept. Never had him on a chain.
Today when I see someone having their dog chained to an outside dog house I want to grab that owner and chain them to a small box in the elements.
Now another option is HUNTING Dogs and how to keep them. Whole other discussion. Some hunting dogs are not HOUSE Dogs. I know that. Raised Trained hunting dogs for many years.

My good friend had his dog "Footsie". this dog got into porcupines several times and the vet turned my friend into Animal Control because he was not keeping "Footsie" from roaming.
This was 55 years ago when we didn't neuter dogs and let them roam. Tobias would walk with me to the bus stop 2 miles up hill every morning at 6:30am and then he would be at the bus stop to greet me around 3:00PM and we would walk back up the hill 2 miles to get home.
If your dog gets into a porcupine these days - you don't have control of your dog.
Porcupines don't attack dogs/animals- dogs attack porcupines.

If anyone of you ever came upon a porcupine you would agree with me that they are docile. They just try to walk away from you or just look at you. There is no threat. Big myth that they "SWOOSH" their body and the "QUILLS" fly into the air and stick into you or animals.
The only way you or an animal can get a quill stuck into you is to press against-Bite the porcupine.
As far as porcupines damaging property/trees-YES they do. It is a Porcupine's nature to climb to the top of a tree to eat the tender parts.

God forbid if you have a hunting cabin/house and porcupines get into it. They can destroy it.

Just seeing a porcupine in the middle of the woods, which is their home, and shooting/killing them just for the thrill of killing- YOU are not a Hunter!
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Cattle are not attacked by porcupines don't know who said that but it wasn't me. What happens is cattle not being the smartest animals in the food chain come across a porcupine not being threatened by the little guy sticks his or her nose down to check out the new neighbor. Well the new neighbor doesn't know what a cow is but it's bigger than he is so to give Mr or Mrs cow a warning they get a swat in the nose by their tail and a mouth full of quills that will prevent the cow from eating and for free range cattle that a death sentence.
 
Gater said:
Cattle are not attacked by porcupines don't know who said that but it wasn't me. What happens is cattle not being the smartest animals in the food chain come across a porcupine not being threatened by the little guy sticks his or her nose down to check out the new neighbor. Well the new neighbor doesn't know what a cow is but it's bigger than he is so to give Mr or Mrs cow a warning they get a swat in the nose by their tail and a mouth full of quills that will prevent the cow from eating and for free range cattle that a death sentence.
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I did put another post up (about my post you quoted) realizing that cattle do get quilled because they push things around with the nose. I was uninformed and did correct myself. Porcupines can cause Ranchers $$$$$$ by loss of cattle. I also posted the damage that a porcupine can do to a hunting lodge and tree damage (they eat the tops of trees) In the forest that is nature, but at your house and fruit trees they are pests that can do a lot damage.
Thank you and other LRH members correcting me!
 
In the old days (perhaps as late as the '70s) the US Forest Service would provide .22 ammo to foresters so they could shoot any porcupines they saw.

I got on a airplane wearing my Forest Service uniform (sometimes they would upgrade us) and the talkative woman in the seat next to me said how happy she was about the reintroduction of wolves. I told her there was a reason they were wiped out in the first place. She didn't say another word the rest of the trip, which suited me just fine.

I would love to reintroduce wolves into central park. I think they'd do well there.
 

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