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Wild Boar

More on Hogzilla

http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/news/local/10059799.htm
Legend of Hogzilla lives on in Alapaha

By Ed Grisamore

Telegraph Columnist


ALAPAHA - Darlene Turner was behind the cash register at Jernigan's Farm Supply when Chris Griffin came by the store on a Saturday in mid-July.

It's not unusual for Chris to stop by Jernigan's several times a day. It's a regular gathering place in Alapaha, a town so small it doesn't have a traffic light.

"He came in to get a log chain," said Darlene. "He said he had killed a big hog, and they needed it to hoist him up."

Large hogs usually don't raise even the hairiest of eyebrows in these parts. They are quite common in the swamps along the nearby Alapaha River.

Darlene figured Chris had killed something, though.

"You could smell it on him," she said.

Then she laughed.

"I don't know if it was Chris or the hog," she said. "But I know I smelled something."

Alapaha's own version of the Loch Ness Monster

Something still "smells" about Hogzilla, the 12-foot-long, half-ton feral hog that has given this close-knit community more than just a day in the Georgia sun.

Rumors have been flying it was all a hoax, a tale as tall as the south Georgia pines.

It has been dismissed with other "urban legends," although there's nothing urban about this town on the road from Tifton to Willacoochee.

The wild claims could be a page right out of Ripley's. There hasn't been this much commotion and surrounding mystery since the 1970s, when there were reports of a "peg-legged Bigfoot" along the 5-mile stretch of U.S. 82 between Alapaha and Enigma.

"It has brought a lot of attention to this little town," said Darlene, sitting in the back of the family's store at closing time. "Hey, we're finally going to be on a road map!"

Darlene hasn't allowed herself to get too caught up in the possibility Hogzilla is Alapaha's own version of the Loch Ness Monster.

When her husband, Don, first heard of the super swine, he joined the chorus of disbelievers.

"Yeah, and I killed a 100-pound armadillo in my back yard," he said. "He left a hole so big my Massey Ferguson tractor fell into it."

Only a half-dozen people actually claim they saw the hog. All have signed affidavits swearing to its veracity.

Darlene wasn't one of them. In fact, her only proof is the lone photograph of Chris standing next to Hogzilla that nearly everyone has seen. She now distributes copies of the photograph to curious customers who come by the store.

The photo was published in newspapers all over the world and has been widely circulated on the Internet. In fact, when hotel clerks in Hawaii noticed a local couple was staying there, they told them they were delighted to have someone from "Hogzilla Country."

Folks in Alapaha, seizing the marketability of the moment, are riding this big hoggy to market.

The theme of this year's 20th annual Alapaha Station Celebration on Nov. 12-14 will be "The Legend of Hogzilla." A crowd of about 8,000 is expected.

"Everybody has an opinion about whether Hogzilla existed," said Sylvia Roberts, one of the festival's organizers. "We're not trying to prove or disprove it. That's why we're calling it 'The Legend of Hogzilla.' People can decide for themselves."

There will be Hogzilla parade floats, a hog-calling contest and a greased pig competition. Elizabeth Moore, of Glory Methodist Church, is going to take 125 pounds of meat, make a 250-foot-long sausage and proclaim it as the "world's longest hogzilla sausage."

"We're going to let the gate open and go hog wild," she said.

At Becky's Beauty Shop downtown, Hogzilla T-shirts are selling like hog-cakes. Owner Becky Davis has sent out orders as far away as Michigan and California.

"I had a man in South Carolina call about buying a T-shirt," she said. "He said his name was Richard Hogg."

No word on whether it was a size XXXL.

Phillip Hoffman, the town's retired postmaster, said he interviewed Chris Griffin for a radio show in Tifton and said he has no reason to doubt his story.

Betty also interrogated Chris while she was cutting his hair.

"I did my best to trip him up, and there weren't any holes in his story," she said.

But tell any story to 100 people and see how many different versions come back to you.

"It's like a fish story," said Elizabeth. "The more you tell it, the bigger it gets."

Shooting into fame

On the night I met Chris, he was sitting at a neighbor's supper table, wearing a baseball cap and sipping a Mountain Dew.

He is still learning to deal with the unexpected notoriety that comes with bagging a behemoth boar.

He is 31 years old and works as a hunting guide at Ken's Fish Hatchery and River Oak Plantation. Among his many duties is to feed the wild hogs that come up from the river and fatten them up for "sport."

Owner Ken Holyoak brings hunters to the plantation, and Chris feeds them everything from peanut butter to fish pellets to "keep them in the area."

Holyoak asked Chris to kill the large hog roaming the property because he didn't want him to get away and run the risk of someone else shooting him.

So Chris stuck his rifle in his truck. At feeding time July 17, he noticed the estimated 1,000-pound hog with the 9-inch tusks.

"He came from one of those pig trails coming up from the swamp," Chris said. "He was a big old joker. I had never seen one that big."

It only took one shot, striking the animal behind the shoulder and hitting his heart. The hog ran about 30 yards, then dropped dead in the dirt.

Although the size of the monster hog was only estimated - and therefore subject to exaggeration - it still had to be moved with a backhoe.

It was suspended above the ground with four chains for the now-famous photograph with Chris. When Elliott Minor, a reporter for the Associated Press, wrote a story, people from Dubuque to Delaware were reading about Hogzilla.

"The next thing I knew, people were telling me I was on CNN and that Dan Rather said my name on CBS," Chris said. "In my wildest dreams, I never knew there would be so much interest. You would have sworn I won the lottery."

He wasn't prepared for becoming part of local lore. The Bravo television network recently came to Alapaha to film a documentary. Chris did radio interviews over the phone in places like Seattle, Las Vegas and Boca Raton, Fla.

"I talked to a radio station in Chicago," he said, "and they had banjo music playing in the background."

On the home front, there was a buzz from the Wal-Mart in Fitzgerald to the bowling alley in Tifton, where he was asked for his autograph.

"Nobody had ever asked me for my autograph," he said. "Before all this, I couldn't have given it away."

It would be nice to say Hogzilla was preserved for prosperity, that his remains could be found in a local museum.

Or that a local taxidermist had him stuffed and placed in the town square as a tourist attraction.

Or that he was chopped up to provide enough hot dogs for the Berrien County school system for a whole semester. (Truth is, wild hogs make for mighty tough eating.)

But he was buried on the plantation in a grave marked by a white cross. Hogzilla's massive head was cut off and buried in an undisclosed location, perhaps to discourage grave robbers.

National Geographic magazine is scheduled to come to Alapaha on Nov. 7 and follow Chris around for the week prior to the festival.

Chris said Hogzilla will be exhumed during that time, and DNA testing will be used to determine the size of the hog.

Said Chris: "After National Geographic digs him up, if people aren't convinced, they never will be."
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There ARE some big hogs. I saw multiple pics of one take on Lightsey Cattle Co. property, near Lake Wales, FL, that looked to be a meter or so from the chest to the top of the back. Standing, the top pf the back would have been almost 5 feet off the ground. Not exactly Babe.
 
The most entertaining and enthusiastically-delivered talk at Uncon was about wild boar in Britain.

A well-ventilated venue, top-notch refreshments, an erudite speaker with eyewitness experience.
Yup, standing outside the pub on Saturday night. :)

Worth going to Uncon just to hear you- you know who you are!
;)
 
Georgia Town Celebrates 'Hogzilla' Legend

Sat Nov 13, 4:34 PM ET

Top Stories - AP

By ELLIOTT MINOR, Associated Press Writer

ALAPAHA, Ga. - Residents of this small farming town gathered Saturday to celebrate Hogzilla, a 12-foot-long wild pig that was supposedly shot by a hunting guide last summer and quickly grew into a worldwide legend.

The festival comes five months after the 1,000-pound hog was killed when it wandered out of swamps along the nearby Alapaha River, a haven for swine that escape pig farms and start living off the land.

The prodigious porker was remembered with a hog-calling contest and a greased-pig chase, as well as a float featuring a life-size replica of Hogzilla.

"Everybody is happy, smiling, excited. We're going hog wild," said Becky Davis, an organizer of an annual community gala that was held this year with a Hogzilla theme.

The hairy heavyweight supposedly measured 12 feet with 9-inch tusks, said Ken Holyoak, owner of the hunting plantation where the hog was killed near Alapaha, about 180 miles southeast of Atlanta.

But few have actually seen Hogzilla. Holyoak's only proof is a photo showing the guide with the beast dangling from a rope. Holyoak says Hogzilla was too old to butcher and too big to mount, so he buried the carcass in a grave marked by a white cross.

Festival organizers were initially skeptical of adopting a theme that confirmed Hogzilla's existence, so they chose to focus on the Hogzilla legend.

Holyoak said he has been interviewed by 200 newspapers and at least 24 television stations, as well as numerous radio broadcasts.

"It's been on the radio from Canada to Russia," he said. "I didn't know people would go that crazy over a hog."

The legend has propelled Chris Griffin, the guide who supposedly shot Hogzilla in June, from relative obscurity to celebrity status.

"They ask for my autograph," he said. "I've gotten used to it, but before it kind of freaked me out. I wasn't used to that much attention."

Asked if there could be more giant hogs in the swamps — perhaps a Hogzilla heir — Holyoak replied: "If there's one, there's a possibility of more."

Lisa Whitley said friends in Atlanta asked her for Hogzilla T-shirts.

"They were wondering if it was really that big," she said. "But it really doesn't matter. Alapaha is famous. It's great for the area to have something to celebrate."
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Source
 
Talking with a man from Scandinavia about boar rooting eh?

Over to Weird Sex for this thread!!
 
Now this should be interesting:

Posted on Mon, Nov. 22, 2004


National Geographic Channel unearths legend of Hogzilla

By Sharon E. Crawford

Telegraph Staff Writer

Hogzilla didn't kidnap the girl, climb the tall building or scare the masses.

In fact, those who saw the feral hog alive said he was too big to be light on his feet.

But the animal, rumored to be 12 feet long and 1,000 pounds when he was killed, has created quite a stir in the hearts of people in Alapaha - a small community 125 miles south of Macon. Although some residents doubt his existence, the wild hog has brought the city almost instant fame and even became the mascot of their annual fall festival.

"We've had a hogzilla of a time with this," said Darlene Turner, who operates her family's business, Jernigan's Farm Supply. "It has put us on the map."

Since rumors of his existence started in June, newspapers around the world have covered the story of the monster-sized hog. Two weeks ago, a group of forensic scientists and a National Geographic Channel television crew traveled to Alapaha and unearthed the wild animal's remains.

Although officials are keeping silent on their findings, property owner Ken Holyoak said they did confirm the remains were found, studied and then reburied at the original site. Holyoak owns the River Oak Plantation and Ken's Fish Hatchery, where Hogzilla was killed.

"They said when we get the reports, we're going to be really happy," Holyoak said. "I'm just glad they came down here to do this. ... It's time to get the truth out there."

Russell Howard, vice president of communications for the National Geographic Channel, said Hogzilla is scheduled to be an episode of the National Geographic Explorer show early next year. Howard declined Friday to give any additional details about the show.

Last spring, one of Holyoak's employees told him he kept seeing a large hog roaming around their property. In June, Chris Griffin shot the animal and then called his boss.

"I went right over there and couldn't believe it," Holyoak said. "His head was about as big as a car tire."

Because he couldn't fit the large animal in the freezer intact and the meat was not suitable for eating, Holyoak said he and his crew decided to bury the animal instead. They cut his head off and put it in an undisclosed place because they were afraid someone would steal it.

Although Holyoak took a few pictures and had several witnesses sign affidavits about what they saw, many people have doubted the story.

"I finally started telling people that I didn't care if they believed it or not," Holyoak said. "I knew what I saw and how big it was."

After the story broke, Holyoak said he got calls from 200 newspapers and magazines, 24 television stations and from three companies wanting to make documentaries about Hogzilla. When the National Geographic Channel called and asked if they could dig up the hog, Holyoak told them to come on down.

"They did all kinds of stuff, and they were tickled to death with what they found," Holyoak said. "They told us it would take a while to find out everything, but they said it would be worth it."

As part of the agreement, Holyoak had to sign an agreement saying he would not allow anyone else to dig up the hog's remains.

Holyoak said business has picked up since the Hogzilla story got out. Along with fishery items, customers can buy T-shirts with the wild boar's head and bloody tusks or a photograph of the actual animal taken before his first burial.

Last week, the Hogzilla legend was even celebrated during the annual festival in downtown Alapaha. Holyoak paid $5,000 for a replica of Hogzilla to be created, and it won second place behind a "float with trees," the businessman said.

Now, other cities have called asking if the Hogzilla replica can be a part of their holiday parades this year.

"I told them we don't have time to parade Hogzilla around," Holyoak said. "We have to work."
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Source
 
Wild boar chase woman on horse

A horse rider says she was chased by wild boar roaming free in forestry on the Wales-England border.

Around 20 boar are thought to be living in woodlands which straddle Monmouthshire and Gloucestershire.

Carla Edmonds, who lives near Monmouth, said she and her dogs were chased while riding in 3,500-acre High Meadow Woods.

Pig breeders in the area are also concerned that the animals - which may have escaped from captivity - could pass disease on to their herds.

Countryside users said their horses and dogs had been pursued by the beasts, which have razor-sharp tusks.

Nobody is sure where the boar, which can weigh up to 400lb, came from, though there have been reports of one breaking free on the way to an abattoir in Gloucestershire.

"It was absolutely astonishing," she said.

"I was riding along one of the paths in the forest, about 100 yards or so from the main road, and I saw a group of 20 or more.

I could see them charging at a huge pace
Carla Edmonds
Click to expand...

"At first I couldn't make out quite what they were, but then I could see they looked like pigs."

Ms Edmonds' dogs began barking and her horse became agitated. The herd of boar gave chase.

"I could see them charging at a huge pace," she said.

She said her horse was seriously disturbed by the experience and took a long while to calm down.

Other horse riders have had similar experiences, she said, with one taking a quad bike escort with her when entering the forest.

She claimed another villager was trapped in her home when wild boar blocked her lane.

"Something really needs to be done before someone gets hurt," Ms Edmonds said.

"My horse was seriously spooked, but I was able to control him, but a less experienced rider could have had a terrible accident.

'Extremely aggressive'

"These wild boar are obviously a menace."

Pig breeders in Wales are particularly concerned by the reports.

Helen Tongue, chairman of the Wales and Border Counties Pig Breeders' Association, called for the herd to be rounded up.

"Wild boar are a danger to human beings and to animals, too," said Mrs Tongue, who farms at Devauden, near Chepstow.

Wild boar facts

A fully-grown adult boar can weigh up to 400 lb (180kg)
They can measure 6ft (2m) from snout to tail
Male boars grow tusks after they reach two years old
They have much bigger litters than domestic pigs, and can breed twice a year
Their diet can include mice, birds' eggs and lizards
Click to expand...

"They can be extremely aggressive and have strong tusks which can do a lot of damage.

"I wouldn't be happy if they were wandering around anywhere near my home.

"There are so many pig diseases which can be easily transmitted.

"The regulations on moving pigs these days are extremely tight, to prevent the spread of disease, but these wild boar, roaming freely, could pose a serious disease risk.

"They are extremely strong animals, too, and can knock down fences easily, so they would have no problem getting into a farm where normal pigs were being kept.

"These animals need to be rounded up and sorted out before it is too late.

Anyone who sees them should report them to the police immediately, and anyone who has had any escape from captivity should have told the authorities, too."

Phil Glanville of Monmouthshire Council Trading Standards department added: "The local authority is making inquiries to try to find out where the wild boar have come from."

----------------------
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/wales/4051477.stm

Published: 2004/11/29 13:16:40 GMT

© BBC MMIV
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Hmmm, bit of scaremongering there,they were probably chasing the dog as boar do not like dogs, been a few injured around here when they got too near piglets.
Boar "regulate" the size of their litters dependant on the food supply and population density,as most animals do (something we could learn from there !)
Yes they can get very large,the big male I saw was huge, absolutely magnificent creature.
Strange how they don't rip people "limb from limb" in the rest of Europe,but they might do here :roll:
Razor sharp tusks?, well they do have impressive tusks,but when you see trees that have been gouged,it seems not so much razor sharp as "very useful gauge for one male to size up another male" type thing.
 
Hogzilla, Part Deux

Another big Southern pig, confirmed by Snopes:

The hog was too big for scales that were available to me on a Friday evening (500 lb. scales), so we decided to let the processor estimate the weight for us. Smokin' Oak Sausage Co. in Branford, FL did the processing for me and he put the weight between 1100 and 1200 lbs. The tusk on the right side was 8-1/4" above the gum line and the right tusk was broken and measured 5" above the gum. The hide with the head was weighed at 284 lbs. The taxidermist I am using measured the neck at 42" around and the length from his eye socket to the tip of his nose at 11-3/4".
Click to expand...

http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/bighog.asp
 
Anyone out there remember the Australian film Razorback by Russel "Highlander" Mulcahy?

Thought not.

No real point, but...
 
anome said:
Anyone out there remember the Australian film Razorback by Russel "Highlander" Mulcahy?

Thought not.

No real point, but...
Click to expand...

If that was about a murderous wild pig/boar then one of my brothers had the paperback novel of it. Cant recall the actual film itself though.
 
anome said:
Anyone out there remember the Australian film Razorback by Russel "Highlander" Mulcahy?

Thought not.

No real point, but...
Click to expand...

Yeah, dreadful was'nt it ! :(
 
anome said:
Anyone out there remember the Australian film Razorback by Russel "Highlander" Mulcahy?

Thought not.

No real point, but...
Click to expand...


I throughly enjoyed this movie... sort of 'Jaws' with a killer pig... :lol:
 
Boar offered new home with llamas

A horse rider who was chased by a herd of wild boar wants them to go to an animal sanctuary for their own safety.
Carla Edmonds hopes the boar, which have become regular visitors to her land near Monmouth, can be captured before someone decides to shoot them.

The boar are not a protected species and could be considered a pest by land owners worried about livestock health.

Farmer Alastair Fraser, who runs a llama-trekking tourist attraction nearby, has promised them a new home.

He is now trying to woo the animals into Ms Edmonds' stables, where they can be caught.

It won't be long before people are taking pot shots - I'd rather the three be shipped out before it gets violent
Carla Edmonds
Click to expand...

The beasts can then be taken to their new life with a dozen llamas at Sedbury, Chepstow.

Around 20 boar are thought to be living in woodlands which straddle Monmouthshire and Gloucestershire.

Ms Edmonds' first experience of them was when they chased her and her dogs while she was riding in 3,500-acre High Meadow Woods.

But she has grown more fond of the three who have been regularly visiting her property, although they have also churned up large areas of the fields she keeps horses in.

She said she had enjoyed seeing the piglets grow but is now worried that the media attention would lead to someone trying to shoot the boar.

The animals, which are now thought to have been dumped by a farmer or breeder, are not protected under wildlife laws.

Forest Enterprise, which manages much of the forestry on which the animals roam, does not even consider them to be wild boar, but a domestic pig cross breed.

If that is the case, then the animals would still not be protected even if a policy review by the rural affairs ministry Defra - due after Easter - came down in favour of encouraging wild boar herds in some locations.

Carla Edmonds said: "It won't be long before people are taking pot shots. I'd rather the three be shipped out before it gets violent."

'These animals aren't wild boar'

Mr Fraser, 65, said he thought the animals had very little chance of surviving without the home he can offer them.

He said: "There a lot of alarmism about them carrying disease. If we can show people that they are not dangerous animals, I hope to put all this to rest."

Rob Guest, Forest Enterprise's deputy surveyor for the Forest of Dean, said: "We have enough experience with animals to know what wild boar are, and these animals aren't wild boar.

"Wild boar are timid. These pigs run towards people.

"Boar are largely nocturnal. These animals are seen in the day."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/wales/4213371.stm
Published: 2005/01/28 06:56:23 GMT

© BBC MMV
Click to expand...
 
anome said:
Anyone out there remember the Australian film Razorback by Russel "Highlander" Mulcahy?

Thought not.

No real point, but...
Click to expand...

Too right - I enjoyed it. Partly because of the incidental chracters.

One of my friends is still occasionally called The Reptile because he so loved the line "Wakey wakey hands off snakey".

--------------------
And a longer report on the one naitaka mentions:

Last modified Sun., February 06, 2005 - 02:27 AM
Originally created Sunday, February 6, 2005

HOG KONG: 'HE WAS A BEAST'

Bigger than 'Hogzilla,' and easier to verify, meet...

By JOE JULAVITS, The Times-Union

First there was Hogzilla, the legendary South Georgia wild boar of beastly proportions and questionable origins. Now, from the rural Florida community of Okahumpka comes another monster hog without a catchy name but with a credible story.

Actually, depending on the source of the e-mails, there are several not-so-credible stories attached to the estimated 1,140-pound wild hog killed this past August by Larry Earley at his 22-acre farm near Leesburg. Earley's hog, which went relatively unpublicized for months, has recently taken on a wildly embellished life of its own on the Internet.

One version -- all the e-mailed stories include photos -- has Earley shooting the hog in Texas. Another has Earley firing two shots from a handgun at the charging animal, and, later, donating the meat to feed the homeless in Orlando.

"I was laughing when I saw that," said the 39-year-old Earley, who works as a fireman in Orlando. "There are two or three versions from Texas. One of them renames me. Another keeps my name but changes the location to outside of Houston.

"I have no idea where the stories came from."

According to Earley, here's what really happened.

At around 4 p.m. on Aug. 27, Earley went to check on one of his Labrador retrievers that had gone for a swim in the pond on his property. Earley was concerned because a 9-foot alligator frequents the pond.

"I was standing on the dock and saw the butt of the hog," he said. "At first I thought it was a steer that had gotten through the fence. Then I saw it from the side and saw an 8-inch tusk."

A longtime hog hunter, Earley dashed back to the house and holstered his .44 magnum Smith & Wesson handgun. It's the gun he prefers for hog-hunting because it's easily carried when pursuing a hog through thick cover.

When Earley returned, the huge hog had moved and was rooting along the edge of the pond.

Making a half-circle to gain a sidelong shot, Earley crept to within 10 yards of the animal and fired one round.

"He grunted real hard and turned and started coming at me," Earley recalled. "I backed up and tried to keep the crosshairs on him, but he made about three jumps and fell over sideways about 10 feet from me.

"I didn't realize he was that big or I would have gotten a different gun."

Earley, whose previous biggest hog had weighed 230 pounds, had no clue what this one weighed. He figured maybe 400, 500 pounds. A 300-pound wild hog is considered a giant. A 400-pounder's a nightmare.

Having no suitable scale available, Earley got help loading the hog onto a flatbed trailer used for hauling cars. He then drove up Interstate 75 -- his cargo drawing stares from other motorists -- to Suwannee River Ranch near Branford in Suwannee County. The ranch is a hunting preserve owned by John Kruzeski, a boyhood friend of Earley's, and it has a 500-pound game scale.

Kruzeski did a double-take when he saw Earley's hog, which easily outmatched the measly 500-pound scale.

"He said, 'Man, that thing weighs 1,000 pounds,'" Earley said.

Robert Bradow, who owns Smokin' Oak Sausage Co. in Branford and processes meat for Suwannee River Ranch and other area hunting preserves, witnessed Earley's hog before he processed it. He was stunned by its size.

"That thing was unbelievably huge, the biggest hog I've ever seen," Bradow said. "We've processed a bunch of hogs, and probably 450 pounds is the biggest we've ever seen."

Using a meat-processing formula, Bradow estimated the hog to weigh between 1,100 and 1,200 pounds.

"There was over 300 pounds of boneless meat," he said. "We have a rule of thumb, the thirds rule -- one-third for the head and hide, one-third for the internal viscera, one-third for the carcass.

"My math tells me you're looking at 1,140 pounds, almost 1,200 pounds. He was a beast."

The hog's head and hide alone weighed 284 pounds. Measured from the gum line, one tusk was 8 1/4 inches long; the other was broken off. The hog's neck was 42 inches around. Earley is having the head mounted.

So how does a wild hog grow that large? It's likely Earley's hog had some domestic blood in him. Also, Earley believes the hog he shot had fattened up on salt licks at a neighboring ranch.

"My neighbor had complained about his mineral blocks disappearing," Earley said. "He had asked me four years ago if I'd seen a great big gray boar."

"He definitely had some domestic in him, but he was a genuine wild hog," Bradow said. "That hog had almost no fat on him, which tells me he had a lot of wild in him."

Comparisons of Earley's hog to the much-publicized Hogzilla are unavoidable. Hogzilla was killed last June at River Oak Plantation in Alapaha, Ga., by an employee of the hunting preserve. The hog reportedly weighed 1,000 pounds, measured 12 feet long and sported 9-inch tusks.

Other than a widely circulated picture, there is no documentation of Hogzilla. According to the property owners, the animal was buried on the plantation because it wouldn't fit in one piece in a freezer, and the meat was unsuitable for consumption.

Forensic scientists from the National Geographic Channel have unearthed Hogzilla and will report their findings in a show to be aired later this year, according to The Associated Press.

Earley, whose own hog is the subject of debate in e-mail exchanges, is skeptical.

"That seems odd to me, to shoot something like that and bury it real fast," he said.

Earley's freezer is still full of sausage, and he has given much of it away to friends. None to the homeless, although that detail made for a good Internet story.

Although he doesn't seem the type to relish attention, Earley has become something of a celebrity. He has been interviewed by newspapers, radio stations and The Farmer's Almanac.

Earley and his 10-year-old daughter took the photos that have shown up in e-mails, but they have no idea where the accompanying stories originated.

"There were only a couple of people I sent pictures to," Earley said. "I have some people I know who might have written [the stories], but nobody's fessed up yet.

"It's pretty amazing how far around this has gotten. I don't mind. I love talking about hunting."
Click to expand...

Source
 
One shot from .44 Magnum ! ,must have been a bloody lucky shot,!.
 
Emperor said:
anome said:
Anyone out there remember the Australian film Razorback by Russel "Highlander" Mulcahy?

Thought not.

No real point, but...
Click to expand...

Too right - I enjoyed it. Partly because of the incidental chracters.

One of my friends is still occasionally called The Reptile because he so loved the line "Wakey wakey hands off snakey".
Click to expand...
I suppose if it still had some novelty, you might find it amusing. But after being wakened on every camp I had to go on by some droll wit yelling it out every morning, it loses its charm.

And that was before the film came out.
 
anome said:
Anyone out there remember the Australian film Razorback by Russel "Highlander" Mulcahy?

Thought not.

No real point, but...
Click to expand...

Crikey! Bacon with pointed teeth!
 
sunsplash said:
anome said:
Anyone out there remember the Australian film Razorback by Russel "Highlander" Mulcahy?

Thought not.

No real point, but...
Click to expand...

Crikey! Bacon with pointed teeth!
Click to expand...

Somebody get the pineapple this Gammon steak is gonna be a doozy!
 
Tourists get wild boar protection

Campsites in Gloucestershire are to be protected from wild boar attacks with wire mesh fences.
The Forestry Commission will erect two four-foot barriers around campsites in the Forest of Dean that are vulnerable to attack from the animals.

A 40-strong herd of the pigs has been roaming the forest since December of last year.

The fences will run for one and a half miles, and be placed around sites in the Berry Hill area, near Coleford.

Rob Guest, the Forestry Commission's deputy surveyor, said the pigs had been damaging campsites in the area.

Can be shot

"They have been digging up areas around the forest and have now got on to the sites, causing damage.

"At the moment the pigs are still pretty tame, they tend to run towards people rather than run away from them.

"The fences will help protect the campsites but they will also protect campers as we don't want a situation where the pigs are attracted to the sites by the smell of food.

"Having a pig in your tent would not be a nice situation," he added.

Forest managers fear the herd will revert to natural wild boar behaviour and gain a permanent foothold in the forest ecosystem.

Earlier this year Gloucestershire Trading standards confirmed that the animals, which can grow to 6ft in length, can be shot if found on private land.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/e ... 361679.stm
Published: 2005/03/18 14:21:31 GMT

© BBC MMV
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The final postscript (apparently) to the legend that was Hogzilla

Super swine was real, experts say

Tuesday, March 22, 2005 Posted: 3:47 AM EST (0847 GMT)


ALAPAHA, Georgia (AP) -- A team of National Geographic experts has confirmed south Georgia's monster hog, known to locals as Hogzilla, was indeed real -- and really, really big.

They also noted the super swine didn't quite live up to the 1,000-pound (450-kilogram), 12-foot (3.6-meter) hype generated when Hogzilla was caught on a farm last summer and photographed hanging from a backhoe.

Donning biohazard suits to exhume the behemoth's smelly remains, the experts estimated Hogzilla was probably only 7 1/2 to 8 feet (2.25 to 2.4 meters) long, and weighed about 800 pounds (360 kilograms).

The confirmation came in a documentary aired Sunday night on the National Geographic Channel; it will be rebroadcast Wednesday and Saturday.

"He was an impressive beast. He was definitely a freak of nature," said documentary producer Nancy Donnelly.

She said Hogzilla's tusks -- one measuring nearly 18 inches (46 centimeters) and the other nearly 16 inches (41 centimeters) -- set a new Safari Club International North American free-range record.

That wasn't good enough for Ken Holyoak, owner of the 1,500-acre (600-hectare) fish farm and hunting preserve where Hogzilla was shot by guide Chris Griffin.

"I need to stress that they did not have that much to work with, seeing as how the poor beast had been underground for nearly six months," he said Monday.

Holyoak said Hogzilla weighed in at half a ton on his farm scales, and that he personally measured the hog's length at 12 feet (3.6 meters) while the freshly killed beast was dangling by straps from a backhoe.

"As with any organic being after death, tissues will decompose and the body will atrophy, making actual measurements change over time," Holyoak said. "Have you ever seen a raisin after it was a grape?"

Donnelly said the experts allowed for some shrinkage in making their final estimate.

Despite the dispute, this town 180 miles (290 kilometers) south of Atlanta has already adopted Hogzilla as its own. It went with a Hogzilla theme for its fall festival, with a parade featuring a Hogzilla princess, children in pink pig outfits and a float carrying a Hogzilla replica.

"Our insides were just bubbling," said Darlene Turner, who hosted a party to watch the documentary Sunday night.

"At first, I was afraid it might be an embarrassment. But now I wish everybody could see the documentary. It would take the doubt out of people's minds."

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/03/22/hogzilla.ap/index.html
 
Animal lovers want wild piglet saved from hunt

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch animal lovers have launched a campaign to save a wild boar piglet called "Snowflake" from being shot by hunters, fearing his unusual black and white coat will make him an obvious target.

Wild boar are usually dull brown in color but with the hunting season for wild boar due to open on July 1, fears are growing that the piebald piglet's days trotting through woods are numbered.

"It's very realistic to say that hunters will see him and will shoot him," said the National Forestry Service, which has received 500 emails appealing for hunters to spare the piglet.

The celebrity wild boar has attracted a stream of visitors to his home in woods near Hoge Veluwe national park, in the central Netherlands, and sparked a campaign by an animal rights party to spare him in the seasonal cull.

One national newspaper Friday featured a large photograph of "Snowflake" -- his white coat dotted with black spots -- foraging in the woods. The paper's headline proclaimed "massive" support for the piglet.

Hunters are invited into the national park to keep a population of up to 6,000 wild boar at a sustainable level, the National Forestry Service said.
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