HE HUNTS KILLERS
About the Killer Hunter
 Editor’s
Note: Gene Brooks of Dublin, Georgia, hunts hogs in
three different states and is on call to a large number
of landowners and farmers. When a bad hog or a pack
of hogs starts eating and destroying crops, tearing
up roads and killing dogs, then landowners and farmers
call Brooks. Brooks' motto is, "Have Dogs, Will
Travel." Although Brooks catches and removes any
hog or group of hogs that terrorizes the landscape,
he specializes in "killer" hogs. Killer hogs
have been hunted before by other hog hunters and are
so bad that they leave bulldogs, curs and hounds lying
on the ground like casualties from a bombing raid. For
the next two weeks, we'll look at the man, his dogs
and the hogs he hunts.
 I
respect courage in both man and beast. I appreciate
the fact that a man, a dog or a hog will face one another
knowing that before the battle has ended one of them
will get caught, cut or killed. Hog hunters are a different
breed. They're adventure junkies to the nth degree,
but they are not just thrill seekers. They have methods
to their madness and legitimate reasons for participating
in one of the most-dangerous outdoor sports. One such
man who personifies the almost-lost legend of the hog
hunter is Gene Brooks of Dublin, Georgia. Brooks, who
has a strong work ethic like America has been founded
on, never has missed a day of work in the past 15 years.
He's had his legs cut and stabbed by boar's tusks seven
or eight times, had 30 stitches as a result of being
cut by hogs and nearly lost his hand and his arm when
a hog has bit him.
 "I've
only been hurt about 15 times in almost 45 years of
hog hunting," Brooks says. "Heck, I guess
I'll have gotten hurt that many times if I'd been golfing.
I don't play golf, I don't watch football or baseball
on TV, I don't go out drinking or gambling, and I don't
play cards. When my feet hit the floor, I'm hunting
hogs." Although Brooks and his hunting partners,
Trip Neal and David Campbell, hunt hogs anywhere, they
mainly hunt wild pigs in three Georgia counties. "Much
of the land around Macon and Dublin is leased out to
deer hunters, and deer hunters don't want dogs on their
land," Brooks explains. "Too, farmers allow
us to hunt their lands any time they're having hog problems.
Since David Campbell owns a propane gas company in this
area, people around here know him, and they know that
he and I hunt hogs together. So anytime a farmer has
a hog problem, he tells David, and he calls for me and
my dogs to come. That's how we get to hunt so much."
 Last
year, Brooks and his hunting buddies caught 224 hogs,
with the biggest one weighing 420 pounds. "We sell
the big boars to Millwood Plantation," Brooks reports.
"The plantation has a large fenced area to release
trophy boars in and then allow hunters to go in and
hunt them. The eating-size hogs we give away to anyone
who wants to fatten them up and eat them. The in-between
size hogs we sell to hunting preserves and landowners
who want to build up a population of hogs on their property."
TOMORROW: ABOUT THE HOGS
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