Dire HOG! Story from the news!

[Ferret]

Really? Where do they say that? (Regional dialect?)

 

[Krieg]

Really? Where do they say that? (Regional dialect?)

On every farm that raises hogs in the US.

Hog being used to refer to a castrated pig is generally confined to the UK (and commonwealth?).

 

[Dirigible]

Anyone else fancy a bacon butty right about now?

 

[Ferret]

On every farm that raises hogs in the US.

Hog being used to refer to a castrated pig is generally confined to the UK (and commonwealth?).

I live in the UK so excuse me fo not knowing that. Actually I've never heard of the word hog used for anything but wild, hairy pigs.

Either way that is a big pig.

 

[Krieg]

I live in the UK so excuse me fo not knowing that.

Well it is certainly nothing that you need to be excused for!

English and "American" aren't always the same language.

 

[The_Universe]

Doesnt' require skilled manipulation. Simple forced perspective will do the trick. Notice how in the picture the things that provide a sense of scale (the man and the tool handle) are both well behind the hog? Notice how the man is in poor focus, while the hog is pretty clear? Unless we know how far back that man really is, we don't have a good idea of how long that hog is.

Plus, iirc, a half-ton isn't actually all that odd for domestic hogs. Most folk vastly underestimate how much the suckers weigh.

As a man who grew up on a farm where hogs were raised, I can say definitively that a half ton is HUGE for a domestic hog. Beef cattle generally only reach about a thousand pound before being slaughtered, and that kind of weight is only gained when they don't have to do anything but stand around and eat.

To have a hog reach that kind of weight in the wild, where food is harder to come by is ASTOUNDING. That's a BIG pig.

 

[Krieg]

As a man who grew up on a farm where hogs were raised, I can say definitively that a half ton is HUGE for a domestic hog. Beef cattle generally only reach about a thousand pound before being slaughtered, and that kind of weight is only gained when they don't have to do anything but stand around and eat.

FWIW there is a pretty big difference between a traditional hog farm and the current "factory" farms (mostly down in the Carolinas). The Hogs in those facilities are kept in individual pens with no room to move. They spend their lives eating (a ridiculously high calories diet) and defecating. That's all they do.

There really is no comparison between the animals raised by big corporate hog producers and your average single family mixed production farm.

FWIW I am about as pro-meat as they come, but the conditions in the big corporate facilities is absolutely abysmal. No animal should have to experience that life, even if their sole purpose is to end up on the table...

 

[The_Universe]

FWIW there is a pretty big difference between a traditional hog farm and the current "factory" farms (mostly down in the Carolinas). The Hogs in those facilities are kept in individual pens with no room to move. They spend their lives eating (a ridiculously high calories diet) and defecating. That's all they do.

There really is no comparison between the animals raised by big corporate hog producers and your average single family mixed production farm.

FWIW I am about as pro-meat as they come, but the conditions in the big corporate facilities is absolutely abysmal. No animal should have to experience that life, even if their sole purpose is to end up on the table...

Arguments re: the treatment of meat animals aside, all I was really trying to say was the following:

1) Domestic hogs rarely reach a thousand pounds, but may approach it. This size is closer to what beef cattle wrigh once mature enough for slaughter. Picture a big Texas steer and a full grown pig standing next to each other, and I think you'll see what I mean.

2) Since domestic hogs--which have a much easier potential for growth--rarely reach the half-ton in question, the idea that a pig of any sort has done so *in the wild* is startling, and perhaps all that much less likely to be true.

Since I no longer live or work anywhere near a farm, this is all to be considered iirc. I contemplated calling my father to confirm, but I don't think I've widely departed from fact at any given point.

 

[Gnarlo]

Has to be a hoax. Ain't no good ol' boy I've known, seen, or heard of that would kill something like that and not bring it in to town to show off and hopefully get on the news. Or at least COPS.

 

[Krieg]

1) Domestic hogs rarely reach a thousand pounds, but may approach it. This size is closer to what beef cattle wrigh once mature enough for slaughter. Picture a big Texas steer and a full grown pig standing next to each other, and I think you'll see what I mean.

I was just pointing out that the farm hogs you have personal experience with are generally much smaller than the ones raised on corporate single use farms.

2) Since domestic hogs--which have a much easier potential for growth--rarely reach the half-ton in question, the idea that a pig of any sort has done so *in the wild* is startling, and perhaps all that much less likely to be true.

Agree 100%, I also touched on this in my first post on the thread.