[QUOTE=slartibartfast;712808] I have immense respect for the work they do, but I cannot ever believe that the hogs do not suffer. QUOTE]

I never said the hogs did not suffer and nobody in that sport would try to claim otherwise. I said it is the most humane way and the most appropraite placement for the dogs mouth, the most comfortable in comparrison to say the stomache, nose, or breaking its legs.

I am shocked. I really am. I never thought that people who feed other animals to their pets would in any way be oppossed to the catching (not the killing or torturing or imhumane treatment of) a hog by a dog. You may not feed live but that animal died for the sole purpose of feeding your pet. I am pro live and don't mind the use of feeders in any way. If you think that a mouse or other animal doesn't suffer.. at all, in becoming a feeder I would like to hear the arguments for that thought. Even ones that are frozen or euthanized in any other way do suffer in some way - either the cold or the deprivation of oxygen or other means. And while it is fast and humane compared to other methods there is no zero suffering method unless you lethally inject them.

If done to regulation and properly with trained animals that are in control by the handlers this is not any less humane than the actual hunting of the animals with guns or knives.

If you condone the use of force to take the feral hogs out of the territories they destroy at all then you must know the animals are often just killed or that the means of capture can cause pain and injury as hogs are escape artists and evade snares(which I do not condone), traps, nets and all other manners of confinement to their own demise. They will injure themselves more in attempting to escape a strong net or cage or enclosure or injure the humans trying to be nice about it more than they are injured or suffer by the use of dogs to properly catch them.

Not to mention that being shot, if not correctly placed on the head (most shots are behind the front shoulder blades as with other game animals) is far more painful than being caught by a dog and living in a pen or then being properly and painlessly dispatched.

This is about the proper use of the dogs, I am not trying to condone or argue for those who abuse the right to use dogs or who are in it for a bloodsport purpose as some sort of entertainment.

I also hunt and realize some are against the killing of any animal at any time.