As I've said, I enjoyed watching it, and I instantly sent the video to my dad and my brother. I enjoy it in the same way I enjoy watching my Pygmy nail a mouse then eat it (for which someone called me out for being weird on this board in the other thread). I live down the street from one of the major swamp tour operators. The busloads of tourists are nonstop. Swamp tours are a major tourist attraction for our state, and it focuses on something pretty unique to our state. Despite having toured all of the hotspots and backchannel secret spots on my own in my flat boat, I did one of the swamp tours a couple months ago when an out of state teen came to visit our family. The pigs were a big attraction. The bigger gators were scarce that day, and in a close run with feeding a 6 ft. gator a hot dog on a stick, the hogs were probably the highlight of the tour for the majority of the tourists on the boat. Looking at the people on the boat, even as a reptile lover I can guarantee that the majority would have been more sickened than entertained by a display like that. That's how most people are. Most hardcore outdoorsman will obviously react differently. My problem is that this will undoubtedly be spun by some a-hole group like PETA and will reflect poorly upon the tourism industry for our state. It will also reinforce the notion that Louisianians are a bunch of redneck, backcountry rubes. This action by a tour guide has the potential for exponentially more negative attention than positive, and as a "representative" of our state and the tourism industry, he should certainly have known that.
As I stated in a previous comment, our tour guide got real careful and eventually backed off completely once the gators were even in sight of our boat. There was a large group also on the tour, and their group was split amongst several boats. One was just getting to the area where the pigs were. Our tour guide told the people from that group, "If your friends on the other boat don't say anything about the pigs, then please don't tell them that you got to see them. Sometimes the other guide may not have time to hit all the same areas." I took this as an indication that he signaled the other tour guide that the gators were moving in, skip the pigs with your group or they are going to see something you don't want them seeing.

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Posted by 911Moto

Member since Sep 2013

5491 posts

Posted on 9/9/14 at 1:01 pm to 911Moto

I'll add this: For years I ran up and down the Pearl from Crawford Landing to the Rigolets. I also hit every spot the swamp tour boat took us - and then some - either from finding it on my own or from following the tour boats (my original reason for buying the little flat boat was to explore the swamp - I didn't know at the time that the Pearl would put you into the Rigolets). In all those trips up and down the Pearl and through its backchannels, only ONCE did I see a hog on the bank. But the swamp tour boat pulls up to an area, lets out a few yells and whistles, and the pack of hogs moves in looking for marshmallows. I guarantee you that this conditioned behavior did not happen overnight. It took a long time to cultivate that behavior, and conditioning those pigs that this leads to getting eaten by giant gators is very counterproductive to their business.

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Posted by jorconalx