As those of you who used google to find out the truth behind yesterday’s wild boar photos already know, these photos are not from Texas. They are from an outfitter in Turkey. I didn’t know that people hunted wild boars in Turkey, a country where the majority of the population is Sunni Muslim.
A private outfitter called Nature Tours posted these photos on its website, which someone cobbled together in an e-mail that claimed the animal was Texas. and weighed 1,800 pounds. The fact that the Turkish outfitters have been playing around with the photography to make the animal look much larger than it actually was. My guess is they were using the forced perspective technique, although I wouldn’t be surprised if they used Photoshop or some other photo editing software.
Do wild boars get big?
Yes. The largest ones are native to Russia, as one would expect from Bergmann’s rule. However, these animals don’t typically exceed 650 pounds. which is only slightly over a third of the claimed weight of this animal.
Russian boars have been brought to hunting preserves in Texas to augment feral pig stock. Feral pigs have existed in Texas since the Spanish began to colonize it. When homesteaders moved from the South into Texas, they brought their own free roaming hogs. These animals began to interbreed until Texas developed what might be called a feral pig problem. When people began to hunt them to control their numbers, it was discovered that hunting pigs was a lot of fun, so the owners private game preserves began importing big Russian boars.
Domestic swine have reached massive weights. The heaviest pig on record was Big Bill, who weighed 2,552 pounds. This pig was raised near Jackson, Tennessee, and when was brought to be exhibited at the Chicago World’s Fair in either 1933 or 1934, he broke a leg and had to be put down. Such massive weight is simply not useful to the hog, and it would be very unlikely that such an animal could survive in the wild.
Which brings me to another set of large pigs.
Feral pigs are found mostly in the South. In Georgia and Alabama, giant hogs have been killed.
The first of these was Hogzilla. Hogzilla was said to have been a totally wild hog that weighed over 1,000 pounds and was 12 feet long. He was shot near Alapaha, Georgia in 2004. When his remains were exhumed several months later, his size was found to be only 8 feet long. His estimated weight was only 800 pounds– still quite large for a feral pig. He was found to be a cross between a European wild boar and a domestic Hampshire when his DNA was analyzed.
However, the owner of the property on which Hogzilla was shot has developed his own strain of giant bluegill (I forget what they call them in Georgia. I’ll just use the term I use for them). He has not only developed the strain of giant bluegill, but he has developed a special formula to enhance the size of his already large fish. It seems to me very likely that Hogzilla was raised to reach that massive size, and then he was shot as a publicity stunt. I have no proof, of course. However, it just seems too fishy.
Then there is Monster Pig. This huge hog was killed near Anniston, Alabama. This was a 1,051 pound behemoth. He was also killed on a hunting preserve, and the animal was also said to have been killed by an eleven-year-old boy.
Not only are the photos of the animal very fishy (forced perspective?), but after the story made national news, a couple came forward and claimed that the pig in the photo was their former pet! The pig’s name was Fred, and he loved playing with their grandchildren. They sold the pig to the hunting preserve when he got really big.
If this story is true, Monster Pig was in no way a wild boar or a feral pig. He was just a farmyard swine of unusually large size.
The message from all of this is that the internet is full of big pig stories. Virtually all of them are crap. Every hunter wants to kill a big one, and every outfitter or preserve owner wants to show off the big hogs that his clients can kill. The feral pig/wild boar has the same effect on the truth as the largemouth bass. The size of the animal seems to increase when the yarns are being spun.
[…] Now it makes sense. […]
We call them Bream (pronounced brim).
What do you think of hog/dog trials (like uncle earl’s)? Is it a bloodsport, or just good clean, backwoods fun?
I’ve not thought about hog dog trials much.
But we have herding dog trials, where the dogs sometimes bite the sheep.
So maybe one could make the case that hog dog trials aren’t that bad, especially if it’s just baying:
http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/general/news/story?id=2823788
I didn’t know people thought this was cruel!
God:
I didn’t know I lived in the south.
Feral pigs are VERY common in the hills around the San Francisco bay area.
When we first moved to the area, we soon learned to wait until trash day morning to put our bins at the curb. The groups of wild pig knew what days each neighborhood trash was collected and targeted the blue bins (trash vs. lawn waste or recycle) during the night.
The first month we lived here, one poor family had their lawn and landscaping ripped up twice in a week. My lawn had huge divots removed. We put in a new fence around our trash bins to keep the pigs from turning them over during the rest of the week.
I walked out of my front door one morning, to find a wild pig grazing on my lawn. As tall as a German Shepherd, and three times as wide. I went back in the house, and called 911. The dialogue went something like this…
Them -“911, Emergency”
Me – “Hi. This isn’t an emergency, but I need to know who to contact about the wild boar in my front yard.”
Them – “Try Animal Control at ###-####”
Animal Control – “Animal Control”
Me – “Hi. I’ve got a wild boar in my front yard, about 15 feet from my front door.”
Animal Control – “Oh. We can’t do anything about that. You need to call Fish & Game at ###-####.”
Fish & Game – “Fish & Game”
Me – “Hi. I’ve got a wild boar in my front yard, about 15 feet from my front door.”
Fish & Game – “Do you mean the two legged, or the four legged kind?”
Me -“???!!!??? Ummm… Four?”
Fish & Game – “Wait a while, and he’ll probably move on…”
They tried to introduce “wild boar” here, and they have only been able to establish themselves in the southwestern part of the State, which has a kind of subtropical climate. They don’t do well here at all.
The most rapidly expanding population is around the deep South from the Carolinas and Georgia to Texas. That population has suitable habitat lots of it and the ability to reproduce years. California has more varied climates. If you have a vast subtropical pine forest that extends for thousands of square miles, those things are going to be very numerous.
http://articles.sfgate.com/2001-03-04/news/17588322_1_feral-pigs-wild-pigs-parks
Three hundred pound Beach Boar, just last week…
http://www.hmbreview.com/articles/2010/01/28/news/breaking_news/doc4b620e2f298ed035720064.txt
Does California have a season on them?
Or can you shoot one if you want?
Hunters with valid hunting licenses can purchase tags for them.
http://www.dfg.ca.gov/publications/digest/2009-big-game/43.pdf
and
http://www.dfg.ca.gov/wildlife/hunting/pig/index.html
Just baying? not hardly. Hog dogs are tested by their ability to grab/hold the hog (herding dogs don’t grab the sheep, do they). Just a sport? well, the hog has no method of escape.
If you think about, really: Hog dog trials are no different from bull baiting… which, as I’m sure you know your history, was banned in England in 1835. Leading, many believe, to the development of the modern “pit” bull-terrier type dogs and to the rapid growth in dogfighting.
Wrong.
Everything you just said is incorrect.
No pit bulls are used at Uncle Earl’s.
These are cur dogs– bay dogs.
Not much different from herding dog trials.
No.
That’s what a catch dog does. A catch dog is a pit bull or some relative of a pit bull.
These are cur dogs. Cur dogs bay or as they call it in Australia and New Zealand, “bail.”
They may bite, but they don’t catch.
The HSUS conflated the two terms to make it seem like they were using catch dogs in the trials. They aren’t. They are using bay dogs.
If they were using catch dogs, I’d be very much against it.
That should explain the differences.
Anyone who tells you that they are doing catch dog trials is a liar or doesn’t know the difference.
I am solidly in the anti-pitbull-type-dog camp, but i make a big exception for hog hunters. These are the only people that I know of currently using the breed’s natural traits for an actual purpose.
I drove through a govt. subsidized housing area the other day, and it looked a catch dog convention, like there was no other type of dog allowed or something.
Okay. Don’t say I didn’t warn you, but this is going to launch some people.
I disagree that pit bulls should be banned, but there needs to be much, much more public awareness of the breed’s tendencies. These dogs do require special precautions, just as one would give border collies special precautions around livestock.
Most of the subsidized housing where I live won’t let anyone have a dog.
I think that’s a little unfair.
Owning a fighting dog, shouldn’t require any more precautions than say, having a land mine in your yard.
The vast majority of unexploded ordinance never harms a single animal or person. It is only when irresponsible owners refuse to clearly mark the location of the mine, that all landmine enthusuiasts are maligned.
No one should own a fighting dog. I totally agree with that.
However, there are actually worse breeds than the Pit Bull, if you’re concerned with public safety. Most pet pit bull breeders and those who breed for hog dogs don’t want an aggressive dog at all. These dogs are entirely safe, and there are plenty of responsible pit bull owners.
Yes. Young numbskulls and lowlifes own these dogs. That should try to stop that. But there are serious dog people who know how to handle them. And I would also say that the majority of that breed is not super aggressive. Many of them are very good natured dogs.
Pit bulls do have that problem, and too many of them are being euthanized. Just check out Patrick Burns’s stuff on this.
http://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2009/12/is-400-million-pounds-of-dead-pit-bull.html
Pit bull fanciers haven’t done enough to ensure that their dogs go into the right hands.
I’m not denying that there are problems with this breed, but if you totally ban them, well, the US isn’t the only country to have a “fighting breed.”
In fact, most of the world has far more aggressive and larger fighting dogs than the pit bull. Like the Presa Canarios that killed that woman in San Francisco. Those dogs should have never belonged to those people.
And I know of a breed where the situation is worse than the pit bull. At least in pit bulls people are trying to do something constructive at least at some level.
Check this out: http://retrieverman.wordpress.com/2009/02/13/is-it-ethical-to-breed-for-ojeriza/
and read the comments!
The whole Pit Bull witch hunt is BIZARRE to me. I’m old enough to remember when Pit Bulls were considered THE all-American family dog! In the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s, it was OTHER breeds that were villified–German Shepherds went through quite a phase–I remember a news item back in the early 70’s where a GSD-X-Pit-Bull cross mauled someone, and they emphasized that it was a GSD cross–barely acknowledged the Pit Bull blood! Two decades later, I saw a nearly identical case, again involving a Pit Bull-GSD cross, and THIS time, they went on-and-on about the Pit Bull genetics! Dobermans had their time in the “Bad Dog” scapegoating, and then Rottweilers eclipsed them(after everyone saw the first “Omen” movie–before that, hardly anyone knew what a Rottweiler was!)–but no doubt the Pit Bull witch hunt is by far the worst, and most ridiculous! Not that Pit Bulls can’t be dangerous or cause problems–they certainly CAN and DO; but outlaw them, make them difficult to obtain, and you are just setting up another wretched “tough” dog to take the fall. I am amazed Akitas have not gone through this yet–perhaps their time is yet to come(alas). It is PEOPLE that make this happen, NOT the dogs–the dogs just get used and abused and neglected, etc. by PEOPLE! The PEOPLE are the ones that need to be SEVERELY punished/fined/jailed/made-examples-of–whatever–to get control of the situation. I have worked in Vet offices, kennels, and have been around a LOT of Pit Bulls–easily HUNDREDS(although the pets I knew were not in homes that encouraged unnatural aggression, or puposefully bred for it–all bloodlines of Pit Bulls ARE NOT the same!)–and I have yet to have one I could not handle and wasn’t anything but good-natured. I can’t say this about other breeds that do not have this “evil” reputation, like Cocker Spaniels, for instance!(Of course when a Cocker runs amuck, it doesn’t do quite so much damage!). I just wish laws would focus on the REAL problem, and give HELL to the people that breed for, encourage, and create by neglect, these “bad dogs”, whatever breed(or cross!) they may be!!!!!
…..but back to the hawg dogs–curs vs. catch dogs—some Curs make purty darn good catch dogs too! I had a Catahoula that had a natural tendency and desire to bait pigs–quite something to watch! He did not close with a hog, but nipped and bayed it till it chased him–this is one of the incredibly interesting things these curs do–since hogs are notoriously difficult to “herd”. The old timers(and still some new timers, as I’ve heard) had their dogs bait and tease the hogs until the hogs chased them in a pen, after which the humans simply closed the gate, and the dogs jumped out(pigs can be penned in fairly low fences)–this is THE way to catch free-roaming pigs! And the “Cur” breeds have a definite natural aptitude for it.
I saw a couple of big hogs up on the fork probably topping out
around 150 kg, I was afraid we would hit one with our prius now
that the brakes dont work.
So if tomorrow I went out and bought a 12 week old Brittany from France and a 12 week old pit from game bred lines (say a Colby dog from Boston, for example), and raised them both with all the love and socialization that a puppy needs, I should expect them to have equal odds of being wonderful pets and safe arond other dogs and people?
Give me a break, I was once able to read on-line a scanned copy of a dog fighting training and breeding manual (it was really fascinating). This text was as explicit as it gets, and there was no mention of “abusing” their prize dogs by any stretch of the definition. It was all about finding a dog with the right stuff and then physically conditioning the dog’s body to keep up with it’s drive.
I have a lot of respect for fighting dogs, as I think selective breeding for performance is really interesting, I just hate being lied to by owners who tell me “it’s all how you raise them”.
It’s NOT how you raise them.
I’ve never made that claim. Breeding has a lot to do with it. There are tendencies within these breeds that have to be addressed. Not all pit bulls are going to go off or even have the ability to go off.
Stanley Coren, a well-known and widely published dog expert, went out to Detroit and infiltrated the dog fighting rings. These people would breed puppies that were so game and aggressive that they had to be kept apart from the time they were weaned.
But not all lines are of this type, and to make matters worse pit bulls are a nebulous breed. I’ve see people call Boston terriers pit bulls, and they definitely aren’t.
I may launch some people here, but I think that pit bull fancies who are legit need to get a tight handle on who owns these dogs.
On Animal Planet, there is pretty good show called Pit Bulls and Parolees, and the woman who runs it has a ton of rules for anyone who gets her dogs, including keeping them fenced in and kenneled separate from other dogs when they can’t be supervised.
There’s another breed of hog dog that has been split into fighting and hog dog types: the dogo argentino. The hog dog types are generally not aggressive to people or other dogs.
The dogo looks like a boxer or American bulldog, but it has pointer in it. The pointer was introduced to reduce dog aggression in the breed, and as a hog and javelina dog in Argentina, it was an excellent catch dog.
However, the street gangs got them and turned some lines into fighters.
I don’t think it is acceptable for people to breed for aggression in these sorts of dogs. It okay to breed for prey drive and gameness, but the dogs shouldn’t be super aggressive to people or other dogs.
The only thing with breed bans is that you wind up throwing a broad net, when you really should be going after the thugs. I see it almost like the gun control issue. If you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns. I think the same thing would happen if you banned pit bulls.
How can I test for gameness in this day and age?
I really need to leave your good website for a while, get a usename and password to some bully breed fancy chat group and argue with them until I get it out of my system. I think I am beginning to bother some nice people here.
You aren’t bothering me, although keep in mind that this blog tends to attract a diverse range of people. I try to keep everything moderated so no one gets too ticked off.
But it happens!
I’m not an expert on the bully breeds, and I don’t have a good website for you to look at.
Hey, Bill, it’s always good to vent and get it out of your system, and ALL of us can learn a thing or two now and then–I dimly remember(but I DO remember;)) a recent pile-on(of which I was on the bottom) about “shock collars”…..Anyway, that’s a BIG point to me–there are definetely different strains of Pit Bulls out there—and YES, SOME bloodlines, you CAN raise with other dogs, people livestock, etc. and they are completely reliable their entire long lives–I”VE SEEN IT, over and over and over. To lump this old-tyme, country farm dog/ family-pet-for-generations with other Pit Bulls bred for generations for “gameness”(i. e. fighting and aggressive behaviour) is like saying modern show conformation Cockers are reliable field dogs–I’m sure there are exceptions to THAT too, but I wouldn’t put any money on it. If you look HISTORICALLY at Pit Bulls, which have been VERY popular for decades(dare I say centuries?), you just DO NOT have the attack/aggression statistics that you do now–so all Pit Bulls COULD NOT have been this bad all along, and it not have been picked up by the press(which had field days, as I mentioned, in the past with GSD’s, Dobies, and Rotties). The reasons Pits are so villified now is because SO MANY are being kept, bred, and encouraged to be aggressive by all the wrong people—once again, PEOPLES’ fault, NOT the dogs'(or the BREEDS’). If irresponsible people started losing something that was REALLY valuable to them for breeding and encouraging super-aggressive dogs(like their house, or their car, say), I BET it would discourage the activity considerable after a few nationwide examples got prosecuted. word would get out FAST! Most seriously dangerously aggressive dog owners get off WAY too easy, in my opinion, and THAT is why it continues as it does. I think, sadly, it will ALWAYS be something that has to be dealt with, just like murder and robbery, but after Pit Bulls get outlawed or regulated out of existence(and what a shame that would be for such a noble, faithful, potentially wonderful, HEALTHY breed!), and are followed by other “dangerous breeds”(GSD’s, the Belgian Shepherds, Mastiffs of all types, Dobies, Rotties, Akitas, etc. etc.) I GUARANTEE you that “element” out there will breed an aggressive killer strain of Goldens!!!!! Better to REQUIRE sterilization of anyone convicted of purposefully breeding publically dangerous dogs. You’d get better results this way in eliminating(or at least controlling) it…….
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