Took the kids to Bethpage Village Restoration on Sunday. Think Colonial Williamsburg on a a local level.

They had what appeared to be a feral hog in a pen. The thing was pretty firggin big.

That is pure BS. My whole family sees a nutritionist who is vegan and chooses to do so based on her lifestyle choice. However, she readily admits that many compromises must be made to adhere to that lifestyle and it's not nutritionally ideal. My wife is on a non-wheat, whey, dairy, or sugar diet. The only thing keeping her alive is red meat and fish. Were it not for the fat from those she'd weigh under 100 lbs. B12 comes from red meat btw. Your heart likes it. Excess in anything is bad-even vegetables.

Btw-nice pig. I agree, shame to kill it. I don't think that kid needs anymore sausage. Saw the interview this a.m. Kid seemed sincere. I believe the story.

wow, that is one big pig! if it were me, i would have taken a photo of the big guy (for proof) and then put an arrow into a smaller, tastier pig. imagine the centercut pork chop from that thing? damn, i bet it is platter sized.

for the folks not comfy with hunting. i once read an article in a magazine. i think it was TRAVEL and LEISURE. the (food)editor came to grips with hunting. he shot a pig for the first time, and made a group bbq out of it. he brought up Freud. i think Freud mentioned that humans are not comfortable with the fact that we are just animals that eat other animals. i dunno, i should have Xerox'd the article.

"vegetarian" ...old native American word meaning "Lousy Hunter"

One thing to consider is that animal was a danger to people in the area... can you imagine walking through the woods unarmed and bumping into that thing?

I would have liked them to finish it off quicker. But who knows if the details of the story are true. It's not that hunters ever exaggerate to make their adventures sound more dangerous ... ;)

It's funny that anti-hunters like on-ramp seem to be so compassionate about animals, ready to go out and hug a boar, but are ready to throw an 11 year old kid (!) into jail for "murder".

But what do anti-hunters do for wildlife? Even if you do not support hunting, you have to give credit to the fact that hunters have been the greatest conservationists in this country. In 1937 hunters have voluntarily introduced an 11% tax on all hunting equipment. The revenue from this has solely gone into wildlife preservation. Billions have been raised, it's hundred's of millions every year. There are hundreds of animal specific preservation organizations sponsored by hunters on top of it.

Just my two cents,

George

News now running stories questioning if its real

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,276216,00.html

"Vegetarians ony eat that which cannot run nor hide."

My random thoughts...

1) Feral pigs are the terrorists of the animal kingdom. They must be stopped. (Snakefish are the terrorists of the fish kingdom.)

2) That's a damn big 11 year old.

3) We're all killing the wild animals... slowly... with our global warming. Just ask the bees.

4) Where were Marlin and Jim during all this??

At least hes famous now
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1180540905.jpg

The picture is real, I believe it. The kid sits about 20 feet behind the hog and his arms only look like they touch the back of the hog. It is a common trick in fishing and hunting pictures, to move far behind the animal, to make it look bigger. It would have been just as impressive if the kid would have flat out sat on the pig.

What the real question is here is if the pig is indeed fully wild. It could be a feral pig that was captured at a young age, fed until it was that huge and then turned loose on the preserve. In the end it doesn't really matter to me what exactly is going on. It's a fun story and it's just a pig, so what if it was raised in a pen?

Cheers, George

That would be a costly venture just for a prank - can you imagine how much that thing needed to sustain life!!

From what I can tell these guys were hunting on a 2500 acre game preserve or similar. The owner may well catch and release hogs after fattening them up. Anything is possible in GA! ;) That hog seems awfully fat for a wild pig. I can't even make 20 pounds of sausage from the average wild pig due to lack of fat.

George

I dont know where you were but large wild pigs in Georgia is a huge problem. I hunted pig there and passed on a 300+lber!! There was no was I was going to deal with that nasty beast!

Besides - they dont catch and release in Georgia. They catch, become pets and then eat them!!;)

They get 350 or so tops around here in California. But they tend to live in the hills and may get more exercise than your GA hogs! My largest was about 230 pounds but still only made about 50 pounds of sausage, as there wasn't more than 20 pounds of fat on that whole animal. But I am not complaining. Nothing beats lean wild hog meat.

George

Saw a big sow on the way to sebring one early morning - was like wow - a short cow - no that's no cow - then saw 5-6 striped piglets behind her - she must have been 350-400+ lbs easy.

Not Big For Iowa
 

I attend the Iowa State Fair each year and there, on display in the Swine Barns, are the Biggest Hog and the Biggest Hog Runner Up. It's kind of an Iowa tradition. A boar that wins either of those distinctions will weigh anywhere between 1,200 to 1,300 lbs. and I've seen a few that topped 1,500 lbs. However, those hogs are selectively bred and then raised to grow that large. I suspect strongly that is what you are seeing in Hogzilla if it really was as big as the hunting party claims. You can bet it was a domesticated hog, raised and fed to grow that large and then turned out onto that reserve for a year or so to be hunted for sport. You notice there was never any exam done by a Fish & Game biologist to determine the breed or age of the hog. A DNA and blood sample could have told the entire story including if it had ever been fed growth hormones or injested medicated feed to prevent trichinella. Things that a true feral hog would never have cosumed.
I have been in the past an avid hunter of feral hogs and Russian Black Boar and I have to also comment on their hunting technique. The entire idea of taking that hog with that handgun was a highly irresponsible act. If you have to shoot any animal eight times to kill it you need a bigger gun. If you consider yourself a humane hunter the gun you choose and the round you shoot is determined by your quarry, the bigger the quarry, the bigger the gun. Also, having to take three hours to bring an animal to bag demonstrates the father, the son and their guide were pathetic hunters.
The .500 S&W handgun cartridge shooting a 350 grain JHP bullet traveling 1,950 fps generates 3,032 ft. lbs. of energy at the muzzle. In comparison, a .338 Win. Magnum rifle cartridge shooting a 300 gr. Woodleigh JSP traveling 2,500 FPS generates 4,165 ft. lbs. of energy at the muzzle. But most importantly, the rifle bullet is designed to penetrate heavy flesh and bone as found on that hog. All I can say is that the boy's father is a complete dolt for encouraging his son to behave in such an inhumane manner and someday it will come back to bite him in the ass.
Ventana

I am just real curious what they´re all doing with that hog in the barn..

The operative word here is "mitigation". A related phrase might be "live sustainably to the extent possible".

See, told you so! ;) You probably have seen the news that this was a BARN animal. Pathetic ...

George