Jamison Stone, 11, holds the .50 caliber pistol he used to kill a wild hog weighed a staggering 1,051 pounds and measured 9-feet-4 from the tip of its snout to the base of its tail near Delta, Alabama on May 3, 2007.If confirmed, that would be even bigger than "Hogzilla" in Georgia a few years ago.
That is one BIG feral pig.
UPDATE: I just listened to a NPR news story that really, really bugged me. It turns out that the gigantic pig pictured was no wild hog at all. He was an immense pig raised elsewhere, on a farm, purchased and then shipped to this game preserve where he was released four days prior to this hunt. The previous owners of "Fred" have come forward, first to protest that this was not a wild boar and also to note that allowing a boy to shoot the animal eight times with a pistol was neither humane nor particularly sporting.
I'm really more sickened by the episode than anything else, including any part I had in glorifying the youngster's achievement. While it's no different, in practice, than the release of farm-raised trout for anglers to catch in stocked ponds or the seeding of grouse or pheasants for hunters to shoot on other game preserves, in both cases I imagine the sportmen paying the animals more respect with quick, merciful deaths.
(AP Photo/Melynne Stone)
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