River Oaks Plantation via The Associated Press
Christopher Griffin posed with the huge hog dubbed
"Hogzilla" that he killed on the River Oaks Plantation in
2004.
Posted on 03/19/2005 3:03:48 AM PST by Pharmboy
River Oaks Plantation via The Associated Press
Christopher Griffin posed with the huge hog dubbed
"Hogzilla" that he killed on the River Oaks Plantation in
2004.
ALAPAHA, Ga., March 17 - Few episodes in this modern age have drawn the Southern talent for tall tales like the legend of Hogzilla, the alleged 12-foot, 1,000-pound wild hog shot and killed on a South Georgia farm last June.
Documented by only a single photograph before the carcass was buried, Hogzilla drew television crews from as far away as Japan and appeared on the cover of Weekly World News. The pig became the theme of the town's annual festival. People from California and New Jersey called to order hog T-shirts.
So tall did the tale become that in November, a team of scientists exhumed Hogzilla and went at him with calipers and DNA tests. Now all of Berrien County awaits their findings, which are to be broadcast on the National Geographic Channel on Sunday night.
Some people say the hog had to have been raised in a pen to get that big. Others think there was no hog at all. No one figured the argument would ever be resolved. And, anyway, that was not the point. Asked if she believed Hogzilla was real, Beverly Moore, a retired bookkeeper eating lunch at Flander's Cafe in Alapaha, raised her eyebrows and said, "It's a real story."
Few hunting yarns could stand up to a posse of Ph.D.'s in yellow hazard suits. In fact, new technology has generally made it easier - not harder - to practice the art of embellishment, said Wiley Prewitt, a collector of hunting and fishing lore in Kilmichael, Miss. There is a cottage industry in making realistic sets of antlers out of resin to mount as trophies, he said, and photographs no longer back up a story.
"Some guy kills a deer and takes a picture of it," Mr. Prewitt said. "He'll take it to his buddy who's got all the computer software and they'll turn it into a world record."
But two people were eager for the credibility they hoped a scientific investigation would bring: Ken Holyoak, who owns Ken's Hatchery and Fish Farms, and Chris Griffin, his former employee, who said he killed Hogzilla with a single shot last June. The men had a falling out over who deserved proceeds from the sale of the Hogzilla photograph, and Mr. Griffin now fixes flats at the Wal-Mart in nearby Fitzgerald.
Mr. Holyoak has a knack for publicity, and has a wall of articles about his efforts to raise bullfrogs in captivity and his record-breaking fish breeds, like one he calls the Georgia Giant Hybrid Bream. He has theorized that Hogzilla grew so big by feasting on the special fish food used on the farm.
Mr. Holyoak, who also operates hog hunts on his land, allowed National Geographic to dig up Hogzilla because, he said, he wanted the free advertising, and he thought the hog might be a world record.
A thousand pounds is not extraordinary for a pen-raised hog. But a feral pig or a true wild boar -characterized by tusks, black hair and long legs - would top out closer to 500 pounds, and a typical one of each weighs in at about 150 pounds. Interbreeding with farm animals is, of course, a possibility.
Mr. Griffin says he is tired of doubters. "They're going to eat a whole lot of humble pie come Sunday evening," he said. "I'm going to be giggling and laughing."
Drinking a mixture of Fanta Cherry and Pibb Extreme on his lunch break, Mr. Griffin, 32, told the story he has told a thousand times: He was picking up after hunters when he saw the hog. He grabbed a rifle from his truck and fired. "I shot him, and he turned around and walked off, and I thought, how'd I miss something that big?" Mr. Griffin said. He said he followed the hog into the swamps, where it collapsed and died. Mr. Griffin said he managed to drag it out with a backhoe.
Mr. Holyoak said he measured Hogzilla "with a ruler" and drove the hog in his flatbed truck to a peanut scale. The meat was too gamey to eat, he said, and the pig was too expensive to stuff, so he told Mr. Griffin to bury it.
But before they laid Hogzilla to rest, Mr. Holyoak shot a picture of the pig trussed up by the hind legs, dangling from the backhoe. Later, he had six people sign affidavits saying they had seen the 1,000-pound wild hog (each signer circled "alive" or "dead").
In Alapaha, several townspeople said it did not matter if Hogzilla turned out to be a hoax. "The Legend of Hogzilla" had proved more popular, they said, than previous parade themes like "Saluting Our Firemen" and "Good Old Days on the Farm."
Hogzilla is not the first Alapaha legend, and he probably will not be the last. In the 1970's, the town had a peg-legged bigfoot that left mysterious tracks at night. He has been in the parade too.
"First there was the bigfoot, then there was the hog," said a man at City Hall who refused to give his name and said he was sick to death of hearing about Hogzilla. "And you heard a big old snake crawled across Highway 82 the other day."
Renee Copeland, the city clerk, looked up in surprise at this bit of news. Then she asked, "How big was it?"
Now all we need is a very large cabbage....
Sorry to be trite, but this just reminded me of something...
Ummm, is there any better food than bacon?
Nope. bacon is an amazing food. It makes everything taste better.
Why bury it?
Back in '96 or '97, when I was living in Darlington, SC, a deer hunter in neighboring Florence County shot a hog that was purported to weigh 850 pounds. The hunter said the hog was chasing a deer. I saw a picture of this hog hanging from the hook of a wrecker (that was the only vehicle that could move the hog), and it looked bigger than the one in the "Hogzilla" photograph. The hog in the "Hogzilla" photograph is big, but I don't think it's 12 feet long, or 1000 pounds.
Back in '96 or '97, when I was living in Darlington, SC, a deer hunter in neighboring Florence County shot a hog that was purported to weigh 850 pounds. The hunter said the hog was chasing a deer. I saw a picture of this hog hanging from the hook of a wrecker (that was the only vehicle that could move the hog), and it looked bigger than the one in the "Hogzilla" photograph. The hog in the "Hogzilla" photograph is big, but I don't think it's 12 feet long, or 1000 pounds.
Wrong end
Here's that hog pic, pat.
Because, like any good monster tale, the only evidence has to be a picture and a story.
This is why if the Lochness monster was ever captured, its captors would decide on a catch and release program pronto! Or if BigFoot was snared, its trappers would decide that the only humane thing would be to set him free to roam the backlands!
Thus, with any good 'monster story' the creature always has to be portrayed by nothing more than a picture. Infact i am surprised that the pic is clear .....normally one only sees a grainy pic that could be anything from a 100 foot sea serpent to a 1 inch bubble-gum wrapper!
Funny tagline!
It would attract a lot of scavengers and it would smell real bad.
And it pisses off all sorts of people. Vegetarians, Peta-philes, most liberals... name it. It's the perfect food!
How was this ascertained? Nowhere is this explained.
Many of my fellow Georgia outdoorsman, including myself, perscribe to the theory that "Hogzilla" was not a legitimate feral hog, and was fattened up by Mr. Holyoak over a number of years.
To say that Mr. Holyoak has a knack for publicity is a major understatement.
Once a feral hog gets to a certain age, it's meat isn't as tasty as it used to be. Same goes with catfish.
I thought it was a story about the Big Dig (aka the Big Pig).
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