Feral Hogs Invade Coppell

“Can feral hogs kill children—and if so, why aren’t we doing more about it?”On this wild and hilarious episode of The Ben and Skin Show, Ben Rogers, Jeff “Skin” Wade, Kevin “KT” Turner, and Krystina Ray tackle one of the strangest headlines in North Texas: feral hogs are surging into neighborhoods, including Coppell. The crew debates the danger these animals pose, the insane damage they cause, and the bizarre tactics people use to trap them.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, the wild life zu.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
The wild life all right.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
Faral hogs have been spotted within the city of Coppel,
So lookout, Coppell if you're listening. Uh, the city has
become aware of feral swine activity on private property. These Uh,
these are next to a bunch of seasonal habitats. They
have existed for many years. Coppell is not out in
the country, guys. I mean, it's it's pretty bustling over there.

(00:34):
So I think it's kind of crazy that we just
got faral hogs happening and.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
They're dump over there too, like a giant city dump.

Speaker 4 (00:41):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
I don't think I knew that. I don't know, but
I do know.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
There was a story back in January where faral hogs
were in that Valley Ranch area where which is very dumpy.

Speaker 4 (00:49):
Now it's the same area, isn't it. In Valley Ranch
and Coppell like right next door to each other.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
I aways considered value ranch irving, but yeah, probably.

Speaker 3 (00:57):
My understanding is that faral hogs are in credibly dangerous,
Like they're not going to kill anyone, So I guess
they're not incredibly dangerous, but they're a nuisance and I
think they root around and cause a bunch of damage
and stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
They destroy your property.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
My parents were dealing with some a few months ago.
My dad was poosed. Did they bust a cap in one?

Speaker 1 (01:15):
No, because they would do it like super late at
night or super early in the morning.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
He could never actually catch them. You can't track them.
I can see him strangling one with his barrel.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
Fara hogs caused and estimated four hundred million dollars in
damage annually in Texas last year. Wait how much four
hundred million in Texas got one point five billion across
the nation.

Speaker 4 (01:35):
God, that is more than you could You could refund
public radio with if you got the feral hog problem
under control.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
So I had a couple stories that were sitting off
to the side until I saw this Coupel Farao hog
story this morning. A couple stories. I was like, maybe
we'll get to them this week. But they're not like
they didn't feel urgent. And uh, this is from some
somewhere in Texas. Oh, San Antonio, you are feral pigs
coming to a neighborhood near you, Texas. A and M

(02:07):
expert weighs potential causes. Yeah, I was just going where
the comma was so basically a whole study had been
done about urban sprawls. And you know, again this is
the coyote debate once again. But they're saying we're seeing
more feral hawks. Statistic show more reports of faral hawks. Okay, cool,

(02:33):
I'll just mark that away. Well, I'll snatch that away.
We'll do the story later in the week maybe if
we need it.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
Whatever.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
And then you see that the Copel thing is happening
now too. Here's the question that I have about farah hawks.
Can they kill children? And if the answer is yes,
why aren't we doing more about this? Because the answer
is yes, they can.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
But do they?

Speaker 3 (02:56):
I mean there's first of all, think about Christina's case
her parents. The kids would have to be up at
like four in the morning rooting around in a flower bed,
could be in any danger, right.

Speaker 4 (03:07):
And now in the case of Eugene and Velma's kids,
they're in their twenties and thirties, so they're much older.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
I mean, yeah, in that specific case, I guess yes,
so the kids probably aren't in danger.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
So as I stashed that story away before I saw
the Coppel story, I did want to tell you guys
about another story that I had seen the other day.
This dates back to October twenty eighth, but this is
when I saw it, and this is where I just
stashed it on my little document and maybe we'll use it.
The article says Faral hogs are surging into Texas neighborhoods

(03:40):
right now, surging into Texas neighborhoods right now, Like as
we're on the radio right now live Farrell hogs are
surging into Texas neighborhoods. And I see the urgency now
that Coppel is affected and they're the Metroplex. Three weeks ago.
I was like, I'll just put this in the document.
We'll get to it a month later whenever we have

(04:01):
time or we need to do this story. But right now,
as I speak, much like the hogs were dive bombing
carel hogs or surging into Texas neighborhood That sounds like
that's that's right over there by Coppel High School right now.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
Listen to it. Isn't it like to catch Farrell hogs?

Speaker 3 (04:22):
You like, uh, first of all, you shoot up, you
set up a kill pit, like you set up you
dig a hole in the ground and you put like
some spam in it or something.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (04:31):
You put something in I guess it wouldn't be spam
they've I haven't seen that, but you put and then
you put orange soda in it and dump it in there,
and you just create like a trash pit underground. They
show up trying to dig it up, and then you
shoot them all or are you getting a helicopter and
you shoot them all?

Speaker 1 (04:44):
Highly involved and feels like a lot of work. I
have seen the cage where you just try to trap them.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
Right.

Speaker 1 (04:49):
You know our friend TC, who you know it does all.
He's kind of a renaissance man. He's trapped a hog before,
and I mean, I know people in my family probably
have to like. TC is not the type of guy
you would think who's trapped a hog.

Speaker 3 (05:04):
I think he would trap a hog like at a
at a bar, like corner or but I don't know.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
Okay, but when you trap it, what do you do
with it?

Speaker 1 (05:11):
After that?

Speaker 4 (05:12):
You seduce it? Yeah, you tell it your hopes and dreams. Yeah,
it's like, hey, I'm here to break a slump. So
what you do is you show that feral hogs and trash.
Christina shook her head disapprovingly at you, but she also
smiles as if she knew it was probably would break
a slump.

Speaker 2 (05:32):
I do that a lot too. Oh you break slumps
with hogs. No, shake my head, but smiling because I
expect I like butt smiling. Yep, the MAVs. Could you
use some hogs? He's right, yeah, there he goes.

Speaker 3 (05:45):
Kevin turns in sports dude, all right, coming up next,
it's the Today Game. This segment shant to be podcasted.
You must listen live. It's in three minutes. Don't go anywhere,
but