Anybody out there know the restrictions on donating feral hog meat in Texas? Also, are there charities in the Houston area accepting feral hog meat? Sorry if this is a worn topic. I searched AR first and didn't find an answer to my questions.

That is a very good question that I wish I knew the answer to.

Cheers, John

to bad we didnt have meat donation programes up here in canada as well would be great to be able to pay off say your property taxes and some bills thru supplying wild meat for lowincome/homeless people.

Donations of wild game meat, taken legally, is a lot different than bush meat currency. Let's hope our economy never comes to that.

KB

In August, myself and a buddy hunted some rams near Mason, TX. We didn't want the meat so we donated it. I don't recall the name of the organization, but it can be done.

The only restrictions in Texas concern donations of meat of native species of wildlife.

Feral hogs and exotics have no restrictions.

From Hunters for the Hungry:

Due to the state and federal requirements for processing other animals, venison is the only standard product accepted by all participating processors. Wild hogs are especially difficult to donate; they must be trapped live and transported to an approved facility where the animals can be inspected prior to slaughter.

For these reasons, Hunters for the Hungry only accepts venison donations.

Additional info:

Wild hogs that are donated to food banks must be live because of the requirement that they must be inspected at an approved facility prior to slaughter. This is because wild hogs can carry several different diseases that can be harmful to humans if undercooked meat of the hogs is consumed. This is the reason that many not for profit groups like Hunters For The Hungry does not accept wild hogs. Swine brucellosis and pseudorabies are two common diseases to affect wild hogs.

Thanks Bob!! That is the definitive answer I was looking for.

Too bad - all that meat going to waste.

As a lifelong hunter, I am having difficulty with shooting them and leaving them in the field. I shot a good eating-sized sow about a month ago. She's now sausage.

quote:

Originally posted by RREESE:
As a lifelong hunter, I am having difficulty with shooting them and leaving them in the field.

I have some trouble with that too, however it's wise advice to be cautious about wild hog meat. There are some diseases that can be transmitted just by handling the raw meat. It doesn't have to be consumed to catch something. Consuming it undercooked is just asking for trouble.

When I hunted with my Texas buddies, they left all the big boars. I had to defer to their advice, since I was a guest. I figured it was a good decision anyway. They were selective on what pigs they kept and butchered, but had no trouble getting someone to take what they brought out of the field. Most of those I saw shot were butchered, even the young boars, but not the old boars.

Some of the guys trapped hogs, and in that case they were all butchered by someone, unless they had obvious disease or health problems. In the case of trapping, there was no hurry, so recipients could be called or rounded up, before killing the hog.

I believe in salvaging the meat if practical, but the last thing I want to do is mess up a batch of sausage with a rank hog, or try to salvage something unsavory. If I eat wild pork, especially, I want it to be premium, or it ain't worth messing with. There are just too many good ones to not high grade, unless you are really hungry. That's my opinion.

As an example: They want me to shoot any hog I see, but of course I'm after meat first. So, if I'm looking at several pigs in a bunch, I'll pick a medium size one first, as a meat pig. After that one is butchered, next time I don't need to be so picky, since it will be given away or dragged off anyway.

KB

I do recall seeing a news item on one of the local (San Antonio) channels last year about selling trapped hogs for human consumption to buyers outside the US . . . but can't remember the details. Of course, this was not hunter killed hogs.

On my Dad's place, we shoot every hog we get a chance to. Usually we take the backstraps, but there have been times, particularly during the summer when we just disposed of the carcasses without taking the meat. As much as I love hunting, shooting, and eating hogs, I consider them to be vermin due to their impacts on native plants and wildlife. Additionally, they also have quite an impact on lamb production of the local ranchers. These facts (for me) outweigh any considerations of their "value" as trophies or "sport" and lead me to consider the "only good feral hog is a dead feral hog".

I kill quite a few hogs. It's rare that I don't at least take the backstraps and hinds.

When I do this, I don't open them up. Just cut out the backstraps, then cut a half circle around the hindquarter, turn them over, stand with a foot on each hind and finish the circle and use my knife to bone out the hip joint. Two backstraps and two hinds in less than 10 minutes. Skin em out later.

GWB

FWIW big boars are just as tasty as any other pig while having bigger back straps. Tenderness might be an issue if you were grilling them, tho. The toughest hog we EVER tried to eat was a 175-200 pound sow.....absolute rubber......but that might have had something to do with the fact that it was a really cold snap around here, and we left her outside whole after skinning and cleaning and the carcass froze solid in the first few hours after being shot. I'm not sure if that did it or not, but I'm certain the meat was TOUGH. I can understand leaving them, or any hog, if someone simply has too many hogs to process, but the excuse of "they don't taste good" is BS.

All that assumes the pig is shot undisturbed. While I can't attest to it personally, I understand that if they're dogged or "worked up" before being killed then the flavor of the meat may be affected.

GW:

I dunno, I sometimes do the same thing, but I just skin out the backstrap area and the hams and then remove the desired "parts". Most of the hogs I shoot are encrusted to one degree or the other with mud/dirt and it would be hard to keep it off the meat if the skin is on.

We aren't shooting many hogs these days, just not worth the trouble. I've killed one about 175 pound boar about 6 weeks back and Adam killed 2 out of 3 shots at a stand, first head shot, second running, and missed the third runner (the boy, now young man, can work a bolt fast ) just the other night. One a sub-100 pound sow and one 180 pound weighed boar. Boar was interesting, very long but sort of a skinny build but still had about 3/4 inch fat layer. If he had been the normal "thick" build he would have weighed well over 250. Our normal time from getting hog on ground in front of hanger to having it completely cut up and on ice is about 45 minutes or a bit less if we don't open him up. These days we usually chunk the body and keep just the backstraps, front legs and hams.

Re: donating or selling wild hogs

AFA donating meat to some "feed the hungry" type organization, you can't as mentioned in the post above.

There are quite a few people in our area who trap hogs to sell, mostly for meat, but some of them sell (boars only, state regs) to the various "kill a hog guaranteed" bow or gun places.

The Texas regulations, enforced by the Texas Animal Health Commission, on wild hogs are pretty complex. You can legally only transport live wild hogs for slaughter to a state approved purchaser with an approved holding area or to your home for processing. These purchasers (there are quite a few of them around the state) then re-sell them to the few state approved slaughter houses who export the meat. I'm not sure if you could take them directly to the slaughterhouses or not.

There was an episode that made the TV news about a month back in Dallas where 30 plus wild hogs made their run and escaped from the local slaughter house. Pictured were hogs in backyards, garages, running down the streets, etc. Supposedly they got all of them in a day or so, but I like to think Hogzilla will be lurking around there in a year or two.

Finally, while we use latex gloves while skinning hogs, and deer too for that matter, the incidence of dead hog/human transmission of diseases is extremely low. That doesn't mean one shouldn't take precautions but it's not the death sentence some would have you believe if you handle the meat unprotected. Of course, it could be your unlucky day......

dost really matter you could kill a thousand of them and in most areas of texas from what iv been researching the dead are eaten by other hogs with in 2 days or coyotes ect...hogs arnt like our native deer or cototes ect just shoot them and let them lay the birds,and other critters will pic them clean nateral recycling at its finest

quote:

Originally posted by Gatogordo:
FWIW big boars are just as tasty as any other pig while having bigger back straps. Tenderness might be an issue........, but the excuse of "they don't taste good" is BS.

It's my understanding that it's not just an issue of tasting good, or tenderness. It's a question of fit for human consumption, which apparently is subjective.

As my friends explained, the old mature boars have more opportunity to be "bad" due to hormones, for one thing. The biggest thing is, as they explained, the boars are more likely to be feeding off carrion, or critters they simply killed. They will even eat other dead hogs. That's pretty unappetizing to me. Also, eating meat infected with the larvae of trichinosis is part of the life cycle of that infectious disease. Nasty is the appropriate word. If you can get past that, bon appétit.

KB

Out of all the feral hogs I have been involved in the killing of, I have only ran across a few, half dozen at the most that would not have been edible.

quote:

Originally posted by Kabluewy:

quote:

Originally posted by Gatogordo:
FWIW big boars are just as tasty as any other pig while having bigger back straps. Tenderness might be an issue........, but the excuse of "they don't taste good" is BS.

It's my understanding that it's not just an issue of tasting good, or tenderness. It's a question of fit for human consumption, which apparently is subjective.

As my friends explained, the old mature boars have more opportunity to be "bad" due to hormones, for one thing. The biggest thing is, as they explained, the boars are more likely to be feeding off carrion, or critters they simply killed. They will even eat other dead hogs. That's pretty unappetizing to me. Also, eating meat infected with the larvae of trichinosis is part of the life cycle of that infectious disease. Nasty is the appropriate word. If you can get past that, bon appétit.

KB

A very high percentage of wild hogs have trichinosis, and all the other "bad habits" you're talking about are done by ALL mature wild hogs. In short, if you're that finicky, you should NEVER eat a mature wild hog of any size.

All Pork should be well cooked before eating. -
All meat (including pork) can be safely prepared by cooking to an internal temperature of 165 °F (74 °C) or more for 15 seconds or more.
Wild game: Wild game meat must be cooked thoroughly (see meat preparation above) Freezing wild game does not kill all trichinosis larval worms. This is because the worm species that typically infests wild game can resist freezing.
Pork: Freezing cuts of pork less than 6 inches thick for 20 days at 5 °F (−15 °C) or three days at −4 °F (−20 °C) kills T. spiralis larval worms but will not kill other trichinosis larval worm species such as T. nativa if they have infested your pork food supply (which is unlikely).
Pork can be safely cooked to a slightly lower temperature provided the internal meat temperature is at least as hot for least as long as listed in the USDA table below.[24] Nonetheless, it is prudent to allow a margin of error for variation in internal temperature within a particular cut of pork, which may have bones that affect temperature uniformity. In addition, your thermometer has measurement error that must be considered. Cook pork for significantly longer and at a higher uniform internal temperature than listed here to be safe.

Internal Temperature Internal Temperature Minimum Time
(°F) (°C) (minutes)
120 49 1260
122 50.0 570
124 51.1 270
126 52.2 120
128 53.4 60
130 54.5 30
132 55.6 15
134 56.7 6
136 57.8 3
138 58.9 2
140 60.0 1
142 61.1 1
144 62.2 Instant

[25]



Unsafe and unreliable methods of cooking meat include the use of microwave ovens, curing, drying, and smoking, as these methods are difficult to standardize and control.[11]

Thanks for the info, gatorgo and RREESE. That's good info, not just for me, but for everyone. Frankly, that's why the only wild pork I butcher for myself, is a young one. If I have to bring it back as extra baggage, it might as well be the best I can get.

Yes, I am that finiky. Also, that's why I won't eat black bear.

KB

That 200# boar I shot in Fla. Baked the ham til it was 160 in the oven. Three bites were like chewing on rubber w/o much flavor.
Was going to give it up, then decided to crockpot a batch of beans with it and if it was still tough I'd toss it out.
By golly that was some of the best tasting, tenderest meat I've ever eaten.
He also had one badly infected ham from fighting. A cutter had ripped him a new crotch. We tossed that qtr. The rest of it was in good condition.
George

take game animals to ANY processor and say these magic words
"hunters for the hungry"

also, a trip into a low income area, offering "pig meat" will soon relieve you of the pork.. and any beer you wish to give away

This ol' boy's hide was so tough and matted with mud that when I raked one of my better skinners across him, it didn't even make a scratch. Ended up cutting him in half with a chain saw and pole axe.



needless to say, we didn't even try to save the meat.

My flavo-rite hoglet is about a 120 lb sow. The ribs I season and then coat with Stubb BBQ sauce and place in a cooking bag. Cook for three hours at 270 degrees F. The hinds I bone out season and let set for a couple hours. Then I place in a crockpot along with seasoning, strawberries and carrots. Cook for about 7 hours. Take a onion roll or hamburger bun, some cole slaw and add pulled pork. The loins I'll usually cut into butterfly chops, marinate in zesty italian dressing, garlic powder, tony chacheries and teriyaki, then cook about medium done over mesquite coals. Good enough to make you want to slap yo' daddy down.

GWB

Trapped 9 shoats and shot a 100-lb sow last week. Each and every one went to friends who skinned 'em and processed 'em. Now, if I do as well next week, I may have some left over--

quote:

Originally posted by Kabluewy:
Thanks for the info, gatorgo and RREESE. That's good info, not just for me, but for everyone. Frankly, that's why the only wild pork I butcher for myself, is a young one. If I have to bring it back as extra baggage, it might as well be the best I can get.

Yes, I am that finiky. Also, that's why I won't eat black bear.

KB

Black bear meat is excellent. Have you ever tried it?

quote:

Originally posted by Whitworth:
Black bear meat is excellent. Have you ever tried it?

Yum yum for you.

No, I haven't tried it, and doubt that I can. It's just too difficult to get it past my lips when thinking of worms. So words like excellent, tasty, etc, has little to do with it.

Not from personal experience, but I've heard that with the proper spices a turd could be made to taste good.

As I said, it's subjective. Just because you think it's excellent doesn't mean I'll figure it's excellent for me. I'll just assume it's excellent for you, and leave it at that.

I think it's kinda strange, for example, that there are guys who think that the black bears of Prince William sound have no trichinosis, even though there have been plenty of studies that prove otherwise. They bring the meat to the wild game cookouts at the Moose and Elks lodges, church pot lucks, etc., and basically poision everyone who eats the stuff, sometime not even disclosing what it is until after it's eaten. Like they are gonna prove that it tastes good. Barrffff.

It does no good to argue with them about it. The facts don't matter, except that it tastes good. IMO, these same guys are the type who don't wash their hands after taking a crap, and go right back in the kitchen, serving food to others. It's disgusting.

KB

Bear sausage, mmm, mmm good.

quote:

Yes, I am that finiky. Also, that's why I won't eat black bear.

KB

LOL. I was going to ask you when you first posted on pig meat being nasty whether you ate black bear or not but I was concerned it might be taken as argumentative rather than my true intent of simply being curious. The reason for my curiosity is that few years back in Saskatchewan, our guides refused to eat it. I finally badgered the cook to prepare a roast for us. She did a great job. It was good. The guide explained - " Russell, if you ever saw a black bear eating a rotten carcass full of maggots like I have, you would understand." In BC we ran into guys up in the mountains asking hunters for the meat. To each his own. BTW, Mountain lion meat is excellent.

I have to weigh in here... I have shot a lot of hogs, and more often than not, they were boars. I don't know that I have ever shot one at the magical 300# mark, but would guess some have come pretty close. Never yet have I found one to be bad. Not one... the trick is to kill them cleanly, as has already been suggested, then be meticulous about getting all the glands out of the meat. And I mean ALL of them. Likewise for anything that is blood shot, and get all the "silver" off the meat as well.

Typically I shoot hogs in the head, as it makes for a beautiful, clean carcass. It is the biggest part of them. Put a bullet into one ear or slightly forward of that ear, and get out the skinning knife.

One story: about ten years ago my son shot a boar of ~180#, and I could smell it by the time I was within about 10'. We took it back to the cleaning shed, skinned and quartered it and threw it on ice. About five days later, before I spent several hours on a hog that was "iffy" at best, I decided to try to test the meat by cooking it in the hog's own fat. I took a lump of fat from just above the root of the tail, melted it, and then cut a section of backstrap into pieces roughly 1/2" thick, rolled them in seasoned flour, and cooked that pig in his own lard. Outside being a bit dense, and therefore just a touch chewy, I would defy any of you to tell me it was not pen reared pork, were you to taste it.

Hey, Kabluey: you ever watch chickens? Surely you aren't about to tell me you don't eat chicken, are you?

Yes I eat free ranging chicken. Funny thing is that since I've had some good wild pork, I find it really distastful eating store-bought pork. It stinks.

When I was a lad, on the farm in Georgia, we sometimes cooked racoon, and as I recall, it wasn't bad. I even tasted possum once, well done of course.

What worries me is that my resolve is weak about this, and I could be talked into trying pork from an old boar, or black bear meat, but I may regret it. I worry more about it being well done or not, over it actually being bear or wild pork. I always figured that probably black bear that didn't stink, and was properly butchered, and pressure cooked at least 90 minutes in pint jars would probably be alright.

As long as I can get venison, I'm ok.

KB

I have eaten a lot of black bears and wild hogs.

I perfer ones in the 100 to 200 lb range for eating.

I have eaten some bigger ones but in my opinon the smaller ones are the best.

Good feild prep and mest care is the key to good meat.

quote:

Originally posted by p dog shooter:
Good feild prep and mest care is the key to good meat.

+1

GWB

Late last fall I chased a big one off a salmon stream. I'm pretty sure it was a boar, simply from his size, and no cubs. Actually he was huge, and his head looked huge too, but his legs looked short. I didn't shoot because I didn't know the season was open.

But I'll bet that one was pretty fishy. His hide was shiny though. As I understand it, AK F&G law doesn't require salvaging the meat in the fall, since apparantly much of it is considered too fishy smelling to eat. So your thought that field care, and proper processing is the entire answer, is probably not correct in all cases. The same principle may include hogs too. If one had been eating half rotten fish for a month, for example, I suspect it would smell pretty ripe, regardless of meat care.

I'll have another chance this spring, and may look for a young one intentionally.

KB

i gotta tell you, i've eaten lots of hogs .. and *I* have had clean kill, 1 shot boars that were as rank as a highschool locker room after two a days in august ... in fact, they rather smelled like BO, and the meat had far too strong of favor to be eaten for MY family .. my wife tried and gagged.. and it hasn't been all big boars... sometimes its the 100-150lbers that are running together.. likely rough housing...

people talk about strong deer some times ... my brother in law, from LA, will shoot at ANY deer he sees, at nearly any distance .. and has, from time to time, gone through 1/2 a box of shells...

that meat wasn't nearly as rank as some of the boar i've had.

the ONLY time i've had trouble with sows are when they are obviously "down" or "sick" ... or sometimes a wet sow is a bit chewy ... but 20-30% beef tallow into the sausage makes those tasty.

I have also given that strong flavored meat to folks, informing them BEFORE doing so, and its about 50/50 who liked it (and/or said no strong taste) and those that couldn't stand the stink.

so, its my position that yeah, some pigs can be too stinky to eat.

and no, i didn't get urine or guts on the meat, and all the other "excuses" for FLAVORED meat.

but, for the most part, its great

Plus 1 with what jeffe posted. My most memorable one was the first boar I ever killed. I went ahead and gutted it and took it to the processor. It weighed 325 pounds field dressed, and you could smell the animal when 10 to 15 feet away from the carcass. It was so nasty, even the ground meat stunk.

My first hog was a big boar. I skinned it and boned the meat out at camp and let it sit in ice and water for two days before taking it to the processor. The meat, including the sausage, was so gamy I couldn't stand it. I gave it away to my lawn guy. He was OK with it.

Now, I only keep sows under 100 lbs. and boars around 60 lbs. So far so good.

Also, I checked with my processor yesterday. They Hot smoke all sausage to 150 degrees internal temp. (they actually stick a thermometer in the sausage) for several hours. They cook the summer sausage to 160 degrees internal temp.

I've killed alot of deer and hogs, many nilgai and several elk, Wild hog, properly cared for, is as good as any of it. I am a firm believer that how the meat is processed and cared for makes ALL the difference in the world. Quickly Skin it, quarter it and get it on ice. For several years now I have been ageing my deer and elk. 14-20 days in a fridge at 35 degrees. It works. Not all wild meat is edible. Maybe the animal is very old, sick or just really run down or poorly shot. You can usually tell by how it looks, smells or how the meat looks.

I have shot a lot of wild pigs in Texas.

Even the 340 lb boar I shot [weighed} tasted great. I butcher my pigs and I have never had a bad one.

The wife and I prefer wild pig meat, to any, deer, antelope, elk, caribou, black bear, or moose meat, we have ever eaten.

It is a shame, [nearly a crime IMHO], that all that wild pig meat goes to waste.

My favorite size pigs to shoot, butcher and eat, are 225lbs to 275 lbs.
Boars or sows, does not make a difference, the meat has always been good.

Processor I use quite a bit in Junction takes any game animal that is field dressed as a donation....pigs, aoudad, fallow...haven't been turned down yet. They process it and give it to needy families in the area. Not sure if other processors do the same. Good folks!

I think I'll check with some of the other processors in the area where I live.

One of the differences maybe, Junction ain't Houston, Thank God. Closer into the metropolitan areas the processors are probably more cloely scrutinized by the various authorities.

Yesterday for dinner the wife and I had wild hog loin floured and fried in olive oil.

Today at lunch I was home alone, I had a section of wild hog ribs cooked in the oven.

Tonight for dinner the wife and I had wild pig neck roast, cooked in the oven with spices and BBQ sauce.
We have left overs for lunch tomorrow...
So in two days I had 3 meals of wild hog, the wife two...
It is a most excellent meat.