They’re some kind of sister-animal to people.
Medical science (the covid debacle notwithstanding) is toying with the idea of transplanting pig tissues and possibly organs into humans. The FDA just made some landmark approval of that pursuit in November of last year.
Commercial hog farms require that you “shower in, shower out”, that is, take a shower before entering and leaving the hog barn, because pigs/hogs can pick up the some of the same diseases and illnesses that humans do, and it lessens the chance of a disease killing off all their profits.
In the wild, they become every bit as wary and paranoid as any true wild animal, and it takes a little finesse to hunt them. You can’t just stroll along singing show tunes and blast pigs as they look up to see what’s going on.
And the great Ted Nugent says they’re darn good eating. Probably a bit tougher meat than a domestic pig, but the same thing overall. “The Nuge” has apparently killed hundreds if not thousands of them, and donates massive amounts of meat to food shelves in so doing.
The good eating ones are way smaller than the big ones.
You have to have major patience to be able to successfully hunt them, at least the bigger ones.
The fact that they breed several litters a years makes them highly problematic.