The manufacturer of Kaput Feral Hog Bait announced Monday that it has withdrawn the product’s registration in Texas, citing the threat of many lawsuits for the family-owned company.

Scimetrics Ltd. Corp. said in an April 24 news release that it has received tremendous support from farmers and ranchers in Texas and that it has empathy for the environmental devastation, endangered species predation and crop damage being inflicted in the state by a non-native animal.

“However, under the threat of many lawsuits, our family-owned company cannot at this time risk the disruption of our business and continue to compete with special interests in Texas that have larger resources to sustain a lengthy legal battle,” said the company.

The Kaput Feral Hog Bait label has been approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which Scimetrics Ltd. Corp. said requires meeting stringent testing and documentation requirements.

“To meet these high standards, many years of work have gone into developing and proving the safety and effectiveness of Kaput Feral Hog Bait. We had hoped to provide this valuable new resource to the farmers of Texas, whose crops and land have been devastated by the estimated 2.5 million feral hogs in the state,” said the company. “We had also hoped to alleviate the risk posed by the many diseases these hogs carry being transmitted to both the livestock and the food supply of Texas, by offering an alternative solution to current programs that cannot keep up with the quickly growing feral hog population.”

Scimetrics Ltd. Corp. said it has discontinued its attempts to provide the resource in Texas at this time. It said it is grateful for the support it has received from the agricultural community of Texas.

Texas Farm Bureau feral hog policy supports funding for any research or program to control and/or eliminate feral hogs.