The Rev

Freaking donkeys and mules are taking over our place; we don't know who they belong to. We've call the sheriff and the co. extension office and so far no one can round them up. Our property is bordered with surrounding small 100 acre ranches without fences. Four showed up a month ago now there are at least 20 roaming the area. We used to have a few deer on the game camera and lots and lots of pigs. Now the only thing on all three cameras is FREAKING donkeys; they have run off all the wild life. Thank God the last time I hunted hard I did get a pig, a buck and a doe, my buddy shot a bobcat two weeks ago and a yote. I'm thinking of going out this weekend and just picking my game camera and see if what happens the next coming months; it's a bummer because the next two weeks is doe and spike season, I was planning on putting more game in the freezer!

IOWABUCKHUNTR

Do they not fall under the same "feral" regulations as hogs? I know they can be just fairly destructive with crops as well...

BP_Niccum

Sounds like feral donkey hunting time!

falcon

With the prolonged drought hay has gotten very expensive.
i've seen quite a few donkeys and horses running loose here. They were turned loose by their owners who refuse to feed them. Chased two horses off our property last weekend. Someone opened a gate and put them on that place.

Thousands of horses are starving to death because they can't be sold overseas for human consumption.

Tgiles

Didn't Nobama pass a law making it legal to raise horses for human consumption?

falcon

Maybe, let me check it out.

For five years congress refused to fund the inspection of horse meat. In 2011 congress funded horse meat inspection. Problem is all the slaughter houses had closed. The horse huggers are fighting the slaughter of horses for human consumption tooth and nail.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...tle-month.html

Tgiles

Food is food to me. I really don't care what sound it makes

Chopayne

Can you not taken them in to breed them for sale? Or is it not a good business in Texas?

The Rev

Not worth the hassle of trying to catch them; I'd rather shoot them, but the problem arises of how to dispose of them. The cost of putting up a fence to keep them would far out weight the profits not to mention the expense off feeding them. It's hard enough raising cattle and make money with the drought we've had.
We had a drought in 1994 that people were actually giving away calves, I was paying $7.00 for a square bail of hay back then. I had five roping horses to feed and some roping stock, and we're almost in the same condition today.

Father Forkhorn

For some silly, reason, I sense an opportunity for you in this. They've got to be worth something, and I suspect someone would want them. For instance, a summer camp or a kids petting zoo. I had a terminally ill sister who sent her beloved riding horse to a camp for handicapped and retarded kids so they could ride. It was an absolutely wonderful thing for the kids and her.

At the very least, it could get your knife business associated with one of those feel good stories everybody loves to hear.

Are they tame? It might be a simple matter of coaxing them in.

Somebody could probably at the very least put up some portable fencing like ranchers use to improvise corrals and bait them in.