Puppies, kittens and bunnies get all the love, but who’s going to stand up for nature’s uglier quadrupeds? Few in the S.C. General Assembly, apparently.
The House Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs Committee is scheduled to take up a bill today that would allow individuals to hunt coyotes, armadillos and feral hogs at night from the end of February until the beginning of July.
H. 4943, introduced earlier this month, would allow hunters to use pretty much any method to take out the above critters short of napalm.
“The method of such taking shall be with any legal firearm or arrow shooting device and may be with or without the aid of bait, electronic calls, artificial light, infrared, thermal or laser sighting devices, night vision devices, or any device aiding the identification or targeting of species,” the proposed legislation reads.
“We’ve got to use every avenue we can to try to control them,” Rep. Mike Pitts, R-Laurens and a co-sponsor of the bill, told television station WSPA. “This would open it up, and make it easier.”
“Short of poisoning, you’re not going to alleviate the problem,” Pitts said. “But I want to give people every tool I can to control them.”