March 27, 2005

Hogzilla Hangs High Tale of A Giant Feral Pig in Georgia attracts attention of a National Geographic team

in a documentary. Reported to weigh half a ton and measured at 12 feet in length, the late Hogzilla was shot by a hunter, then exhumed 6 months later for the team's inspection.

posted by beeswacky 19 years ago
  • Tusk-tusk - indignity once again suffered by a cadaver!
  • I don't see why they buried him in the first place. Seems like he would have been good eating.
  • Too gamy, was the verdict. But how they decided that without a nibble is a conundrum.
  • Tusk-tusk, indeed, dear tick! Yes, it does seem a sad waste of all that meat. Wonder if a dog food company would have been willing to handle it -- dogs don't mind gaminess.
  • Dogs don't mind much, sez this cat person!
  • "Our insides were just bubbling," said Darlene Turner I'll bet! I'm curious as to why they had to shoot this pig. Was it destructive? It seems that if you've chosen some mystery animal as your town's mascot, you might want to keep it alive.
  • It was 'cause it was big. Kinda like shooting the deer with the biggest antlers, or having the biggest SUV on the block. Then later it became the town's claim to fame.
  • I'm with maryh. I'm always saddened when I see people who feel they only way they can appreciate an animal is killing it. And hunting an animal for the fun of killing it has always struck me as obscene.
  • Couldn't find this info online, but the February 2005 National Geographic magazine indicates feral pigs are extemely fierce animals and populations are on the rise world-wide. "Dangerous encounters are increasing." They're not amiable Wilbur-type pigs, evidently, but ugly customers.
  • Yes, it's a shame that an animal has to be killed to provide a stroke for some hunter's ego, but a wild boar like that is one of the few truly dangerous animals in the wild. Mr. B's grand-dad raised hogs and had a hand-raised 875lb prize show boar that was the crown jewel in the family's hog production. Sows were brought in from out of state to breed to this monster. The fact that it would kill and eat chickens that got into the pen, and that one of the family dogs turned up missing and the collar was in the pig's pen was overlooked. Kids were warned to stay away from the pen. All was well, until the day that Grand-dad went out to feed and the SOB tried to take his leg off--got one of his best Sunday cowboy boots, too. Grand-dad came in, put on work boots, got his rifle, limped out and made that boar sausage. Domestic boars have been known to kill and eat small children. No lie. In addition to being tempermental and dangerous, pigs are extremely destructive animals. Four or five can tear up an acre of crops overnight. From the Iowa State Vet Med site concerning pet pigs: Pigs kept in a loving environment present with few behavioral problems. However, puberty and its subsequent reproductive requirements can present with unpleasant and potentially dangerous behavioral traits. Pigs come well armed with 4 tusks (very sharp knives) in their mouths, a powerful neck and bite and even pet varieties can weigh 100 kg and out run most humans. Folks from Saskatchewan to Queensland tend to keep a wary eye on wild and feral piggies.
  • BlueHorse: My family used to keep Long Whites, so I appreciate the danger of pigs (Rosie was also one to catch chickens on the hoof, as it were). But this doesn't sound so much like pest control, more like penis enlargement.
  • Okay, I have to reconsider this in light of Bees' & BlueHorses comments (and this, too.) I can see the danger of something this large and destructive to the environment at the edge of a populated community. But I'm still wondering- If this pig was so infrequently seen as to become kind of a local "Bigfoot" legend, was it really that necessary to hunt it down? I could be wrong, and I certainly wouldn't have wanted to come face to face with the thing, but I think rodgerd has a point about penis enlargement. I had sort of the same reaction to the giant lobster story. If you manage to find something that old, and that huge, why not just throw it back? Instead of making a trophy of it, why not just concede victory to the lobster and you can both go back to your lives? Granted, a lobster can't disembowel you with it's razor sharp tusks, but I'm just sayin'.
  • Being omnivorous, pigs don't just tear up soil and eat plants, but are willing to eat other anumals, either wild or domestic, as opportunity may arise. I assume Hogzilla's big problem stemmed from his running loose, so that any damages done locally could be ascribed to him. The question of why Hogzilla met his end aside, though, feral animals in general are part of a worldwide problem with non-native/invasive species. Birds (starlings), animals (rats, mussels in and around the Great Lakes, Asian carp), plants (kudzu and spurge) are not part of the native ecology -- so there is often little to keep them in check, and when conditions are favourable they can multipjy fast. Starlings in North America, to take one example, consume wild foods native birds depend on, and are said to be an agricultiral pest now. These invasive species have been spread by human agency -- we caused these problems. What the ideal solution is, no one seems to know. Shooting seems less likely to do major damage than using poisoned baits or trapping. Or -- even more dubious -- importing yet another non-native species to try to control the first pest.
  • Is this the same pig the destroyed Tokyo?
  • That for the
  • Tit for tat
  • ...so tat's teh way we like it?
  • uh-huh uh-huh
  • Git down tonite!