Hogzilla

From AP via Yahoo! news
Georgia Town Celebrates 'Hogzilla' Legend

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.

Seems you can't keep a good hog down.

Some pig.

"Business," I would have ignored it but you spelled it like 3 times the same way. That is a tricky word to spell correctly.


As for Hogzilla, I believe the photo is real, although the guy is visually in the background behind the pig, and even though he is standing in a trench the proportions of the animal compared to him look correct. I would say that has to be one monstrous pig... It's also interesting that the hog has a fairly hairy body, which is interesting as I would figure something that large would start to grow more than just in size. I'm sure it's got to be something artificially stimulating it's growth, like something in the food or environment contributing to the uncanny girth. Anyone know of any nuclear reactors around in Georgia anywhere?

I bet that sucker wreaked havoc all over that area. eh

Claim: Photograph shows a 1000-lb. hog dubbed 'Hogzilla.'

Status: Undetermined.

Example: [Associated Press, 2004]

Around these parts, they are calling it Hogzilla: a 12-foot-long wild hog recently killed on a plantation and now quickly becoming a part of local legend.

The plantation's owner claims the hog weighed 1,000 pounds and had 9-inch tusks. But few people have actually seen the hog - the only proof being a photo that shows the dead beast hanging from a rope.

Whether the hog ever actually existed or is some sort of Faulknerian myth, it has definitely been the topic of conversation in small towns across southern Georgia.

"People just back up and ask 'Is it real?' They can't believe that there's a hog that big in the woods," said Drew White, who has a copy of the photo on display at an auto parts store in Tifton, about 17 miles away.

Chris Griffin said he killed the beast last month at the River Oak Plantation, where he is a hunting guide, and has been showing off the picture around this small farming community ever since. The hog is nearly twice as long as the 6-foot-tall Griffin, who is seen standing next to it in the photo.

Darrell Anderson, CEO of the Lafayette, Ind.-based National Swine Registry, said farm-raised hogs grow as large as 1,300 pounds and measure as long as 7 feet along the backbone from head to tail. "If you hang them by their hind legs and you have the front legs stretching out, you'll get another four or five feet," he said.

A hog that size would probably be 5 years old, he said. The animals will grow tusks in the wild. Domesticated, their tusks are trimmed because they are dangerous.

Though the photograph could be fake, if it is real it may contain clues to a bit of exaggeration in the telling of this tale � the man pictured beside the strung-up hog is standing in an area that has been dug up. Once one accounts for the remainder of the man's legs (which are hidden from view in the pit) and mentally compares the complete figure with the suspended hog, the claim of the beast's being "nearly twice as long as the 6-foot-tall Griffin" collapses, because the human figure comes up only a bit shorter than that of the felled animal. Source/Read more...

I say it is real.
My father and step-mother have a 20lbs Chihuahua

mmmm, bacon. im sure that pig had enough bacon on him to feed a small community for months.

MMMmmmmmm Bacccooooon.

LadyV must really hate this thread now

Man oh man..... I was just picturin' slicin' into a big ol' hunk o' ribs slathered in sauce after bar-b-quing all night. Then i read that the meat would be foul. Bummer. It's like unmasking your dream date and IT'S A REPTOID, BABY! It looks like a feral hog and not wild. Feral hog get nasty meat-wise?

As to the environmental damage- absolutely! The feral pigs in Hawaii have caused mucho destruction. I saw a pic in Nat'l Geographic of a fence line that keeps the pigs out of a really lush area and the difference on each side of the fence was incredible. Beautiful, lush and green on one side and the other looked like a defoliant was sprayed all over it. Just from pigs.

I live about 20 miles from where the hog was killed. I raised hogs for many years and we have had hogs that DID grow to over 1000 lbs.. If one is hung the way this hog is in the picture, it can easily stretch 10-12 ft..

A few years ago the price of hogs got so low that the farmers around here couldn't afford to feed them so they turned them loose in the woods so they wouldn't have to feed them. This hog appears to be one that was set free to avoid having to feed him. I have seen true wild hogs in this area that were over 600 lbs.. They are dangerous and will attack you.

Some people have questioned why he didn't eat the hog. Well, sometimes if you kill an animal this size, you can't just carry him out even with a lot of help. He probably had to leave the hog until he could get a tractor to him to drag him out of the woods. The hog may have been dead so long that the meat would have been spoiled.

I have met Ken briefly and talked to him but I can't say that I know a great deal about him, but he is a respected businessman in this area.

Originally posted by cyberdude78
Yeah I don't really support killing animals for anything but food, that or if they have to be put to sleep.

But I will quote peter griffin once more "Holy Crap". If thats real thats one big hog. Its huge. Whats that thing been eating.

It must have found some protein enriched grain, the stuff given to farm pigs. That stuff can make a pig grow

All we need to do is find a 2400 pound chicken and a 100 foot frying pan and we could have a mean omelette.

Originally posted by Simulacra
All we need to do is find a 2400 pound chicken and a 100 foot frying pan and we could have a mean omelette.

If they do get this big.Are they found and shot because of the damage they can do?Im just wondering what they would do to them if found this large.I guess there isnt much to do with them other than send them off to a zoo?

The hog could have easily gotten this large by eating acorns and peanuts which are grown in this area. One hog this size can destroy a large area of crops. We had about three that were 200-300 lbs. destroyed about 5 acres of corn one year.

A wild hog can be very dangerous. Some hunters on our farm surrounded one in a pond, it killed one dog injured another then went after one of the hunters. The other hunters killed him before he got the man. That hog was about 500 lbs..

About all you can do with a hog that large is make sausage out of it because the meat is so tough.

UPDATE!

This story has certainly got legs. It died down for a while but is now poised to spring back into the spotlight.

National Goegraphic Channel will have a show about Hogzilla on Sunday at 8:00 pm eastern time.

UPDATE:

HOGZILLA was real. Check out the full story here.

www.cnn.com...

That is one HUGE hog!

Too bad as it would be interesting to see that hog pits against a liger.

www.tigers-animal-actors.com...

www.tigers-animal-actors.com...

Now that is a HUGE cat! Heeerreee Kitten kitten kitten...