Honest to God! You can’t make this stuff up….or can you?
A reader sent me a link to a bizarre and unbelievable claim coming out of Sweden that it is a bad practice to feed wild hogs sugary substances for bait because it will give them bad teeth. From the link, I tried several times to open the web page where the entire article supposedly is found but was unsuccessful in doing that. Here is that link. Perhaps it will work later.
According to Waznmentobe.com, the original piece said: “But local officials warn that the practice, while increasing the chances of a successful hunt, it increases the risk that the boar suffer from weight problems and poor dental hygiene.”
Evidently, in Sweden, hunters put out “sticky buns” to lure the hogs in in order to kill them. I guess that’s cheaper than a helicopter and paid snipers.
In Maine, hunters use bait in the same fashion for killing black bears. Often the bait for black bears is mostly junk food, i.e. donuts, candy, etc.
The same reader who sent me the link to this illogically reasoned display of mental incapacity, also sent along a picture of a sow bear he shot two years ago. The bear was later discovered to be 23 years old. The picture shows the condition of the bear’s teeth. Do you suppose this bear had been feasting on sugary treats for 23 years and perhaps would have lived to be 103 if she had practiced good dental hygiene?