Troops & Tusks turns a Louisiana nuisance into meals, and turns a weekend of hunting into a reason for a veteran to be needed again.
Derek Poore founded Troops & Tusks and runs it with his wife Courtney out of Erath, Louisiana. He is a veteran himself, and the tournament came out of a simple observation: the state has too many feral hogs, food kitchens have too little meat, and too many veterans have been left without a job to do.
The tournament has grown every year since. It has been covered by KLFY News 10, KATC's Passe Partout and The Louisiana Great Outdoors, and its proceeds go to the Fredrick Hebert VFW Post 4158, Hero Hunts and other veteran assistance programs.
Help vets — both abled and disabled — connect with the Louisiana outdoors and provide a selfless service again to their communities. As a vet myself, going out and harvesting these nuisance animals to donate to those in need, knowing we are a part of something bigger, is an accomplishment.
23 veterans take their lives a day in this country. We want to show our nation's heroes they are still needed by providing a service to those less fortunate.
Help decrease the feral hog population. On average feral hogs cause 76 million dollars worth of agricultural damage in Louisiana annually. We seek to allow this competition to go out and help Louisiana with this problem.
Feral hogs are the cause of millions of dollars in damages across Louisiana. This tournament aims to help decrease those numbers across the state.
Help local food kitchens and families in need. We take the harvested hogs after weighing them, skin them and prepare them to go to food shelters. We also open it up for families to come in and take what they need to help feed their families.
We give each vet two hogs and donate the rest to families in need, reaching non-government funded food kitchens and shelters across the state.
Interviews and news segments about the tournament, hosted on the Troops & Tusks Facebook page.
Put a team in the tournament, sponsor a division, or come help at the scale.
