Monster Pig

As tempting as it is, I really try to avoid posting comments on sensational stories. These stories pop up almost daily and spread through "news" outlets like flash fires. One story that really gained momentum quickly was of the 11-year-old boy who killed a "monster pig" with a pistol. This pig was said to weigh 1051 pounds and be over 9 feet long, making it larger than the "hogzilla" killed near my hometown in southwest Georgia. This young boy gained notoriety so quickly (mostly due to a quickly constructed website-- www.monsterpig.com) and he was invited to be part of the upcoming movie about the hogzilla killed in Georgia. Well, if that is not confusing enough, toss in lots of skeptics about the authenticity of pictures on the website and lots of REALLY hateful e-mail directed at this kid and lots of praise and accolades for the same kid. My first comment when I saw the pictures was "Somebody has been feeding that hog, because you can't grow jowls like that rooting around in the woods." As it turns out, the pig was raised on a farm and sold to the hunting preserve not long before this father and son booked a guided hunt. You get the picture. Speaking of pictures, here is the pig. If you are violently against hunting or have never seen animals in between grazing and blackened, then stop here and save yourself some strong emotions. It is not a pretty picture for several reasons.

Here are my personal observations;

1] That is a big hog!

2] That is a cool gun. When I was 11, I had a Daisy BB gun. That is a $1500 heavy duty Colt pistol with a rifled barrel.

3] In response to the unbelievably hateful emails sent to this boy I say, lots of people are very confused about whether man is here to serve animals or to have dominion over them.

4] Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. Pride led to poor behavior by most of the people involved in this story, including the lady from the farm that sold the pig to the hunting preserve.

5] The many people who would write to attack an 11 year old kid and wish he were shot, condemn him to hell, hope he gets some disease from the pork, and throw in lots of profanity for flavor cause me great concern for the direction of our country. That they would use the opportunity to 1) condemn all Christians, 2) ridicule all southerners, 3) repeatedly use the word "redneck" as if it is something worse than all the profane words they know, 4) manage to include the "fact" that the president is committing terrorist acts DAILY, and last but not least, 5) communicate in such an arrogant, condescending manner while demonstrating the grammar and spelling of a third grader--is at the same time both hilarious and terrifying!

6] When you hear the term "feral" pig it is not a type of pig. Feral just means wild. Any animal can be called feral. Once this pig was sold from the farm and began living in the woods, he became a "feral" pig. Obviously, there is some matter of degree--he would have been "wilder" in a year or two.

7] This dad made some decisions that I would not have. But he earned my respect, not for spending lots of money on a guided hunt with premium weapons and not for grabbing the spotlight for his son, but most of all for getting up early in the morning and driving his son to the home of the folks who claimed to have raised the pig and confronting them to learn the truth. This caused the supplier of the pig to soften their attacks considerably. The truth was told without exaggeration BECAUSE this dad looked into the eyes of the couple who were being critical of his kid and asked direct questions. At the end of the day the two men demonstrated respect for each other.