And on another topic,
Alabama Boy Kills 1,051-Pound Monster Pig, Bigger Than ‘Hogzilla’
Saturday , May 26, 2007
An 11-year-old Alabama boy used a pistol to kill a wild hog that just may be the biggest pig ever found.
Jamison Stone’s father says the hog his son killed weighed a 1,051 pounds and measured 9-feet-4 from the tip of its snout to the base of its tail. Think hams as big as car tires.
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The Anniston Star reported that the feral hog was weighed at the Clay County Farmer’s Exchange in Lineville. Workers at the co-op verified that the basic truck scales used were recently certified by the state. But no workers from the co-op were present when the hog was weighed.
Jamison is reveling in the attention over his pig, which has a Web site put up by his father — http://www.monsterpig.com — that is generating Internet buzz.
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Jamison, who killed his first deer at age 5, was hunting with father Mike Stone and two guides in east Alabama on May 3 when he bagged Hogzilla II. He said he shot the huge animal eight times with a .50-caliber revolver and chased it for three hours through hilly woods before finishing it off with a point-blank shot.
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His father said that, just to be extra safe, he and the guides had high-powered rifles aimed and ready to fire in case the beast with 5-inch tusks decided to charge.
With the pig finally dead in a creek bed on the 2,500-acre Lost Creek Plantation, a commercial hunting preserve in Delta, trees had to be cut down and a backhoe brought in to bring Jamison’s prize out of the woods.
It was hauled on a truck to the Clay County Farmers Exchange in Lineville, where Jeff Kinder said they used his scale, which was recently calibrated, to weigh the hog.
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The hog’s head is now being mounted on an extra-large foam form by Cunningham of Jerry’s Taxidermy in Oxford. Cunningham said the animal measured 54 inches around the head, 74 inches around the shoulders and 11 inches from the eyes to the end of its snout.
Mike Stone is having sausage made from the rest of the animal. "We’ll probably get 500 to 700 pounds," he said.
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Jamison is enjoying the newfound celebrity generated by the hog hunt, but he said he prefers hunting pheasants to monster pigs.
"They are a little less dangerous."
With the pig finally dead in a creek bed on the 2,500-acre Lost Creek Plantation, a commercial hunting preserve in Delta, trees had to be cut down and a backhoe brought in to bring Jamison’s prize out of the woods.
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Somehow I don’t think our tourism board here in Alabama will be using this as part of their “Alabama the Beautiful” campaign! (snickers) (and I can snicker because I’m an Alabamian and have earned the right.)
Seriously though, this kid is an awesome hunter and has every right to be quite proud of his accomplishment. He also attends a private Christian school rather than public school, and to me he represents that portion of our next generation that gives me great hope for our future. Way to go, Jamison! You done good!
That’ picture looks fake to me. The boy is leaning on something, but it isn’t the top of the hog. Why wouldn’t they get the media right in there first thing to verify it? It wouldn’t be difficult to do! Sorry boys, my momma’s from Mississippi. I’ve seen big pigs before, and heard some pretty tall tales spun, too, and I’m not buying this one…yet.
By the way, I read this morning with dismay, that the Office for Muslim capitulation is being revived as a pontifical comission of its own right. C’est vrai? If so it’s sad news. Methinks I smell the smoke of Satan coming under the door of the Sistine once again. Ben just can’t win for losing…apparrantly.
Let me clarify, the FIRST picture looks fake. The boy is clear, and the pig is blurry. Uh-uh. It looks doctored. But the SECOND picture could well be for real. It’s plain to see, however, that the proportions of the boy to the pig are different in the two photos. That it was a beast of monstrous proportions is beyond doubt. But I don’t buy that first pic.
I do, however, wish I could get hold of some of that sausage. With due respect to Lincolnshire inhabitants of the porcine persuasion, home-made sausage from the American south is riotously delicious. It’s worth a trip just to experience it. Add some Alabama sausage to the English fried breakfast and…Ambrosia!
I hope the cure the beastie a bit before they render him into sausage.
Pigs are beautiful creatures, especially when served with baked apples and a dry white wine. Thank you, Saint Peter!!
I heard about this last year, I think at Jimmy Akin’s weblog. As I recall, they buried it because they didn’t know what to do with the carcases, but the remains were exhumed, so the story is legit and the photos are apparently all real.
Oh, never mind. This is Hogzilla II. It was Hogzilla I that I’d heard about. I don’t know anything about this new monster pig.
Pasta al cinghiale!!!
There is actually a grape native to the American south called a “Muscadine” (not to be confused with Moscato dessert wine) which makes an excellent white, though it’s not cultiveted much because the climate is so inhospitable to Catholicism. I’ll have to see what I can do to change that if I ever retire there. Roast hog, baked apples, and a glass of dry muscadine…an excellent missionary endeavour!
The second picture could easily be faked as well using forced perspective.
I remain dubious.
to the doubters: it’s understandable to doubt, because this is really an incredibly huge boar. But this story ran in several local newspapers about a week ago here in Alabama, and the reporters verified the facts before reporting it. The receipts for purchase of that many pounds of ‘sausage’ and the hide and head of the boar itself at the taxidermist’s also offer pretty blatant proof. Plus there were numerous eye witnesses, most likely including some of the reporters who ran the story in their local papers.
I’d almost hope it was a fake, because I don’t like the thought of something that big and lethal living in the Alabama countryside. Boars don’t usually get that big, but yeah they DO get rather large, almost as large as a cow. And they are quite dangerous. I for one am glad “Hogzilla II” has been turned into a mounted trophy! :-)
Janet,
It doesn’t bother you that this poor pig was shot 8 times over a 3-hour period as it vainly tried to escape its tormentor, who one assumes enjoyed shooting it repeatedly as it suffered?
Sounds like good huntin’. One might almost expect to see Arthur and Culhwch come out the forest and join the pursuit of this modern Twrch Trwyth.
Henry,
Yes the fact that it wasn’t a clean kill bothers me. I’d forgotten that part of it. And I would hope that the kid did indeed feel chagrined at how long it took to kill it.
From the hunters I have known (I’m not a hunter myself, and never will be), they always try for a quick kill, and are also good animal husbandmen so far as maintenance of the wild animal population. They do have a strong sense of ethics and a responsibility towards the creatures God put us in dominion over.
Can anyone (in Alabama or elsewhere) tell me if it is customarty to go hunting wildlife with a revolver? I have never heard of that before!
Fr. Totton: It’s funny that I kind of pondered the same thing for a brief moment. But hey, it’s the south and if it shoots, why not use it.
Oh boy! Pork Butt – Emeril Lagasse style
By the looks of that hog, the recipe had better be quadrupled.
Fr. Trotten,
Yes, there actually are many revolver’s made for hunting big game.
the one pitured in the story above is a Smith & Wesson 500 magnum, which is manufactured for big game.
That is surely fake. The photo editing is obvious.
No, the story has been verified, as Janet said.
After asking Henry’s advice, I sadly post this link to a current news article:
http://www.abc3340.com/news/stories/0607/428031.html
The hog was indeed 1000 lbs, but the hunting preserve lied through their teeth to their customers about it being wild. This was a domesticated and quite tame hog which had only been put on the preserve 4 days earlier.
I feel really sorry for the boy, who has learned a hard lesson very publically about unethical business people. What was meant to be a great father/son hunting experience has really soured for Jamison and his family.
I also feel sorry for the hog, which could at least have been sold to a sausage producer and killed humanely and quickly instead of suffering for 3 hours. I hope Lost Creek Plantation loses much business because of their dishonesty in all this. This kid will now only remember that what he thought was a great hunt was really nothing more than shooting somebody’s tame pet pig. Really sad.