• Friends, our 2nd Amendment rights are always under attack and the NRA has been a constant for decades in helping fight that fight.

    We have partnered with the NRA to offer you a discount on membership and Muzzleloading Forum gets a small percentage too of each membership, so you are supporting both the NRA and us.

    Use this link to sign up please; https://membership.nra.org/recruiters/join/XR045103

The truth about 'Hogzilla'

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

SquirrelsaurusR

45 Cal.
Joined
Mar 20, 2004
Messages
683
Reaction score
1
Updated: 02:24 PM EST
Tall Tales and the Unlarded Truth About Hogzilla

By SHAILA DEWAN, The New York Times

ALAPAHA, Ga. (March 19) - 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.

hogzil.jpg


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?"

03-19-05 14:30 EST
 
Here's some info debunking the claim, as well as another giant hog that appears to be genuine:

http://search.atomz.com/search/?sp-q=hog...-m=1&sp-s=0

One thing caught my eye, though, about that second one in Florida. Why do they need cinder blocks under the scoop to support the weight? Is that dozer incapable of holding 1,000 lbs.? If so, how did they get it up off the ground in the first place?
 
Look at the picture again. It is NOT a dozer or a backhoe. It is a farm tractor with a front end bucket attached to it. A hog of that weight could stand the tractor up on it's front end , or it may not have a big enough hydraulic pump to lift it off the ground to start with once it is lowered. Possiably from a low hydraulic fluid level.Many reasons possiable to why they didn't lower it all the way to the ground.

Woody
 
Why do they need cinder blocks under the scoop to support the weight?

Just a guess, but it looks like an older tractor, and probably the hydralics system is weak. With the engine shut off it is not keeping the pressure built up in the system, so the bucket would slowly lower with that much weight in it, therefore, he supported it with the blocks. Just a s.w.a.g. :imo:
 
How small is that tractor? I didn't see the pic. My 383 Massey would pick up a one ton bale with the loader. Then I'd stick another one on the rear bale spike. Carried both of them just fine. I'd stack them 3 high with that tractor. My current 3600 Ford won't.....not by a long sight!!!

Vic
 
hogzil.jpg


Documented by only a single photograph before the carcass was buried,

If it was true, why was it buried?

Something like that should have been preserved...
 
If somebody really shot a hog that size, they'd not only take pictures from every angle, but also get somebody to haul the SOB into town so as to have plenty of witnesses! :: :shake: :thumbsup:

BTW: What the heck is Hogzilla supposed to be hanging from in that pick anyway, one o' them black Gov'ment helicopters? :: :crackup: :crackup: :bull: :thumbsup:
 
Gamey is not an excuse for sausages. Enough spice and it tastes just like chicken. :blah:
 
Yeah,.... and the "1100+ pound" hog fits in the 7 1/2 foot loader-bucket!! :thumbsup: :applause:

...... kind'a makes me wonder 'bout a (suposedly) 12 foot hog, thet (suposedly) only weighs 1000 pounds !! :: :hmm: :haha:

YMHS
rollingb
 
I live in this area, and this is the story i got from a friend that is a veterinarian, that hog was wild but was raised in a pen on a neighboring farm and died of natural causes and buried, then was dug up a photographed, don't know if that's true or not but it comes from a reliable source. :imo: :m2c: :thumbsup: :redthumb:
 
I think Swampfox is right, but it still makes for a good story. Tonight (Sunday) the full report is going to be on the National Geo Channel, 8pm est.

Be there or be [ ]

SP
 
We used to hang 1100-1300 lb. steers from a D-17 A-C's front bucket. Never tipped it up.
I would think that if it was that big , someone would sponser it to at least be skinned and tanned for the publicity, alone.
I used to work for a company that made leather gloves, and the brothers that owned it bought the carcass of "The world's largest horse" when it died in Chicago, and had it tanned and displayed it for years. It died in the '50's and they still had the hide in the late '90's.
 
well the verdict is in....it was 8.5 feet long weight was estmated bout 800 lbs....and was a cross breed with a wild boar and a farm pig..................bob
 
well the verdict is in....it was 8.5 feet long weight was estmated bout 800 lbs....and was a cross breed with a wild boar and a farm pig..................bob

Now, I'll believe "thet"!! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
I thot thet hog looked too fat to only weigh 1000 pounds, and be a whoppin 12 feet long!! :crackup: :crackup:

Thanks Bob!! :applause:

YMHS
rollingb
 
Back
Top