Friday, December 07, 2007

Hogfoot, Here in NC

A story from my beloved News and Observer.

Remember the hubbub over Hogzilla, the mammoth Georgia porker killed in 2004?

That hybrid hog (part wild boar, part Hampshire) first was said to weigh 1,000 pounds and measure 12 feet long. The folks at National Geographic later dug up the carcass and estimated the weight at 800 pounds and length at about 8 feet.

Those are just about the dimensions of a feral pig Donald Strickland of Whitakers killed in Nash County on Nov. 19.

Let's call it Pigfoot.

Strickland, 31, a heavy equipment operator with the N.C. Division of Forest Resources and an avid deer hunter, had just finished a morning hunt when the pig business started...

...The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission doesn't keep records on feral pigs, but it just might be the heaviest wild pig ever killed in North Carolina. Neither Mark Jones, former bear and boar biologist with the commission, nor Evin Stanford, deer biologist, was aware of a bigger pig.

"It's the largest we've ever heard of," Stanford said. "It's very rare for a free-ranging hog to get that big.

"It's possible that it might have been in captivity once."

Outside of a six-county area in the mountains, feral pigs have no closed season or bag limit.

"They're not a game species," Stanford said. "From our perspective, we kind of wished they weren't around. They are an undesirable species."

Strickland buried the carcass but kept the head to make a skull, or European, mount.

He doesn't plan to give up deer hunting for chasing pigs, but he did find the experience interesting.


Several good things about this story:

1. Notice that the weight was without the "oysters." Pig that big had some fine oysters. Maybe 20 pounds or more.
2. Did he end up using the meat? Or was it too stinky?
3. The guy is planning of having a taxidemermist fix him up a "European" mount for the den. I think that the idea of having the mounted heads of Europeans in American dens is highly original, and one I fully support. When is the season, though? And how do you catch French people? They run SO FAST in the opposite direction at the sound of gunfire.


(Nod to Anonyman)

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

What an awesome excuse to build a really big pig cooker.

Just a Thought said...

I think that the idea of having the mounted heads of Europeans in American dens is highly original, and one I fully support. When is the season, though? And how do you catch French people? They run SO FAST in the opposite direction at the sound of gunfire.

Isn't this offensive, particularly for a Duke professor and potential gubernatorial candidate? You backed off of calling a Duke undergrad “silly” to say we should hunt the French?

I realize you are confabulating, but based on some of the unreasonable things said online and the posters of such, admonished by you ("Long live the internet"), by the way, I would think you would be more careful not to insult others.

PeeDub said...

In keeping with the theme, I would hope that the previous commenter is *also* being satirical...

Anonymous said...

"Just a thought", I'm assuming you've read Swift right? Eating Irish babies? Considered a classic in literature? Perhaps you need to realize that Mungowitz skillfully connects with people combining humor and reason. Angus connects with people using cute pictures of cats.

Michael Munger said...

It's a b*l*o*g, Thought.

Being inconsistent, and quite possibly offensive, is the reason I have a blog in the first place.

If you are offended, you might want to stop reading.

But you are welcome to continue reading, and commenting. This is an open forum.

Angus said...

Stop reading?? Mungowitz r u kiddin' me?? apologize to the nice man and give him a coffee mug er sumptin'

Sir if you are offended, please tell all your friends, get them offended too. Maybe start up a campaign to shut us down. That'd be the way to go.

by the way, Euro season is Jan 15 - April 15 and the legal limit is 17.

Just a Thought said...

I was just pointing out that if we are going to retract calling an overreaction "silly", then we might was well hold him to a high-PC standard.

I know it is "a b*l*o*g", I think I refered to it as informal, but I do like the idea of a petition. Maybe I'll petition for a retraction of the retraction, or at least the right to mount the babies of the Right!

Anonymous said...

A while ago I was digging through my parents' attic in search of Antiques Roadshow candidates. The stuff I found was total trash but one bit of wrapping paper was a treasure.

It was the classifieds section from a 1946 newspaper. Someone was trying to move a lot of several thousand rifles. The description was "French Army surplus. Very lightly used (dropped once, never fired)."

p.s. For those who can't tell (j a t I'm looking at you) the above is fiction.

Just a Thought said...

"the legal limit is 17."

I guess Ralph is still a legal target.