I think I just figured it out.

This ear cutting thing is 'RETRIBUTION'!

I just got back from spending two miserably hot hours replacing a tie rod end on my ranch vehicle! Yesterday evening I went to check my game cameras, check the feeders and look for hog sign. While crossing the pasture to intersect a road, my left front tire dropped off in a hole left from an old 'rooting'.

I heard a very distinct 'pop' and when I tried to turn left onto the ranch road... my Bronco just kept going straight!

I could turn to the right, but not the left. Got out...looked at the tie rod and sure enough the tie rod end had popped off the steering knuckle. So...I am dead in the water about 2 miles from home and its nearly dark.

Called my Wife to come and get me. 30 minutes pass...no wife. Text'd her the following message: "You don't have to put your make-up on....just come and get me"! She text'd me back...she had been in her nightgown, was getting dressed... will be there soon.

Long story, short.......IF I could catch a hog right now, I would be sorely tempted to cut off it's ears, testicles and certain appendages! There WILL be 'retribution'.

I grew up on a 150 sow farrow to finish hog farm. Trust me, done young enough and with proper procedures it doesn't bother them a bit. No muscles are being cut. The chance of infection surprisingly are very low. The biggest danger is cutting a ruptured hog but even that can be fixed. My dad would stitch them up. stitch the wound closed, and spray a little iodine on those but otherwise nothing.

Barrows are better eating. No testosterone to game up the meat. Not so muscular they get all tough and stringy. In fact, boars bring lower money at the market than barrows and gilts.

DocH, it doesn't bother me if people want to castrate their hogs. It makes great sense in fact. Trap them young, cut them, let them go to grow. That is if you want to hunt them later on and fill the freezer. Cutting the ear half off to mark the barrows is fine with me too. How many of us can see a tiny little notch from 100 yards? Most of our hog hunting is done at night too. I know I can't.

Now if you are some jerk dogging hogs to just cut their ear off for bounty money and letting them go then well, like I said, you are a jerk.

After siring my third child in less than 4 years, my wife demanded that I get a vasectomy. She also insisted on watching the procedure in order to verify. When he finished, the surgeon asked her if he should notch my left ear or my right.

If they are cut really short I'd go with CustomCutter's thought that they are having hog dogger problems and making some hogs tough to catch since from what I've heard, that's what the dogs latch on to.., and rough on dogs. Heard it mentioned before.

This subject got me thinking more into it. I can remember walking up to a hog pin with these six boar hogs all the same size and admiring their long tusk. When I asked the hog dogger owner why their tusk were so long he didn't say much, but that they were older hogs. I knew better than that because I have killed more than my share of wild hogs that their tusk don't get 6inches long at 200 pounds. What he failed to tell me is that they were all cut when they were captured at a younger age. He said that he was tired of feeding them and asked if I knew anybody that would want them. I found him a buyer at 100 dollars a piece. Their tusk brought the sale quick. They went to a hunting ranch. One thing I have discovered about hog doggers is that they don't like killing hogs. They actually get mad when I mention killing them. They want the hogs to populate, so that they are easier to find to hunt. Ive noticed that most people that catch hogs in whatever means just relocate them in a alive state. I know of a paid trapper that catches thousands of hogs and never kills them, just relocates them on hunting clubs ect, which really defeats the hole purpose of trying to concur the hog.

Everyone I know that traps kill em on the spot. No trailering and relocating among my circle...

Yes, we kill every hog trapped...on the spot. Same with snared hogs (if the snare hasn't already done the job).

Of course, they are a 'shoot on sight' pest on the ranch. But no matter what you do, they just keep making more.

This is not about cutting an ear clean, but cutting a notch in the ear.

Hey that's a good thang. Ive seen so many hogs that were trapped and moved around like gypsy's for other people to hunt to kill or to chase around with dogs. I feel you on the hog killin, I hate them too. I feel like one day we will all be crying about how the hogs are spreading diseases and are affecting our deer. That's a phobia of mine. They already eat all the acorns that the other critters rely on for fat building for the winter. Lately the deer Ive been killing don't have much or any fat on them. Not to mention theyre just down right pesky, nasty animals that need to be gone.

Hey that's a good thang. Ive seen so many hogs that were trapped and moved around like gypsy's for other people to hunt to kill or to chase around with dogs. I feel you on the hog killin, I hate them too. I feel like one day we will all be crying about how the hogs are spreading diseases and are affecting our deer. That's a phobia of mine. They already eat all the acorns that the other critters rely on for fat building for the winter. Lately the deer Ive been killing don't have much or any fat on them. Not to mention theyre just down right pesky, nasty animals that need to be gone.