Well, some of you may think me remiss for only now posting this, since it’s been making the rounds since the weekend. Maybe I am, but I thought the Lead Ban articles were more important than another picture of another mondo-hog. Besides, I expect most of you have seen it already. Thanks, though, to Dan for sending the pictures to me in email.
But it is one HECK of a hog.
There’s more to the story, and you can read some of it in many different places. The place I found the most interesting version of the tale, however, was on a site called “Hoax-Slayer“.
What makes the Hoax Slayer article most interesting is the date… August of 2006. Of course, folks who read most of the current articles did notice that the story has been floating around for a few years. It didn’t just happen, although many of the emails in circulation right now are making claims to the contrary.
According to more current reports, a farmer/rancher named John Anick has claimed that he is the man in the picture, that the pig is real, and that his family has been keeping the secret for nearly three years because they were afraid the publicity would bring poachers onto their property.
Personally, I think the size of the hog and the story surrounding it are perfectly feasible. It’s certainly big, but not insanely large for a feral pig, weighing in at around 485lbs. There’s also nothing at all unusual about the fact that the pig was shot eating a dead cow, as this is something I’ve personally observed many times in the field.
In fact, there’s nothing particularly newsworthy about this story at all… until the Internet myth-makers got their imaginations on it. It’s not a world-record, nor is it even close to the size of the Georgia “hogzilla”, or of “Fred”, the so-called, “Monster Pig.” It’s just a big, feral pig.
But yeah, let me kill a 500 lb boar and I’ll have his picture on the Internet too!
Man that sure is a lot of pork chops and ham though Phillip, Feral or otherwise!