Taking of record hog begs the question: Who shot Fred?

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Taking of record hog begs the question: Who shot Fred?

By DAVE SHADOW

http://www.jg-tc.com/articles/2007/06/11/features/outdoors/doc4668b1685aff6399954250.txt

This story got clear out of hand, and possibly theres more questions than Who shot Fred?

Like, who was Fred? What was Fred? Where did Fred come from? What happened to Fred later? Is Fred bigger than the famed Hogzilla? Who shot Hogzilla? And are they really making a movie from all of this?

Well, Hogzilla was the original big hog and big story, and whether hes fact or fiction may depend on your frame of mind and the assimilation of the facts. Theres a bunch of stories out regarding him, and even several pictures. There was a day when we thought that a picture was proof, but that was before digital photography. First claims told of a 12-foot-long wild hog weighing in at 1,000 pounds. He was killed near Tifton Ga., by Chris Griffin, by some accounts, who is a hunting guide in the area. However, one account says National Geographic experts who unearthed the beast estimated the weight at 800 pounds and eight feet long. Either way, it was one big porker!

Hogzilla-II was neater story. An 11-year-old boy named Jamison Stone shot the monster while hunting on Lost Creek Plantation in Georgia. Jamison shot the pig eight times with a 50-cal. handgun during a three-hour chase, according to one account. They loaded it with a backhoe and took it to a nearby scalehouse, where it weighed 1,051 pounds or possibly 1,060 pounds, depending on the version of the story. They estimated that they would get 500 to 700 pounds of sausage from it. The head is being mounted by a local taxidermist. Jamison has been offered a small part in the upcoming Hogzilla movie.

Now, the rest of the story. Hogzilla-IIs real name was Fred, according to a farmer who says he raised the big pig and sold it to the plantation just four days previously. He said he decided to get rid of all of his pigs and that no commercial buyer would buy him.

The Stones believed the pig to be wild, and since feral pigs are a common thing in the area, is quite believable. Evidently the young hunter is not accused of doing anything wrong, but officials want to know how the pig came to be in the plantation.

Feral pigs are descendants of domestic hogs that got loose and continue to multiply in many locations across the country. In some cases they have crossed with Russian or Eurasian boars that also run wild in much of the rough county of the South and West. These critters are devastating to corn and other crops as well as to the gardens planted in the outlying and suburban areas. Ive seen some of the devastation that they wreak on lawns and gardens in Texas and Louisiana.

Anyway, Jamison hunted and shot the big pig no matter what else happened or where it came from, or what someone else had named it. I hope all of the secondary publicity doesnt ruin the sense of accomplishment of having shot what is possibly the biggest pig of all time. He didnt know of the other information, so it is irrelevant to his hunting experiences. Good job, Jamison!