Rick Perry and Texas' feral pig problem

In a controversial move endorsed by the governor, Texans are renting "pork choppers" to aerial-hunt the wild hogs who are menacing the Lone Star State

Gov. Rick Perry's solution to Texas' feral pig problem: Letting hunters pile into helicopters and shoot as many hogs as they want.
(Image credit: Joe McDonald/CORBIS)

Sarah Palin made headlines during her 2008 vice presidential run for supporting a controversial hobby: The aerial hunting of wolves. Now, the 2012 Republican presidential frontrunner, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, is giving helicopter-riding hunters something else to shoot at: Feral hogs. Here, a brief guide:

How bad is Texas' pig problem?

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So what is Perry doing about it?

He signed a law that, as of Thursday, allows hunters in the Lone Star State to rent a seat on a helicopter and shoot as many wild hogs as they want. One Houston firm, Vertex Helicopters, requires hunters to take a $350 safety course before they can book a $475-an-hour hunt aboard one of its "pork choppers." Hog-targeting hunters from New York, Kansas, and Missouri have taken the course and plan to travel to Texas to blast away at pigs. "These are people who are really, really serious about shooting things," says Mike Morgan, Vertex's president, as quoted in The New York Times.

Surely some people are upset about this, right?

Indeed. "For one thing, it's cruel because the pigs often end up being only wounded," says John Johnson at Newser. Also, this might not even solve the problem, especially in other parts of the country enamored of the idea of heli-hunting pigs. "San Diego County, Calif., has been overrun by a new wild pig population rumored to have been [trapped and] released in order to start a hunting program," says Mark Essig in The New York Times. So encouraging hunting in Texas might actually be helping the scourge spread.

Sources: Newser, NY Times, Star-Telegram, USA Today