There is an email making it’s way around the world regarding a giant huge hog killed in Texas. And although hog hunting in Texas is good because of the uncontrollable spread of feral hogs across the state, I’m confident that there are not any wild hogs in Texas that are THAT big. I’ve received a lot of questions about this animal over a short time, and for those not familiar with the story, the monster hog email reads like this:
“Here is a cute little Texas pig that was killed in the town of Cut-N-Shoot, Texas. We call them Piney Wood Rooter’s. There was a documentary on about a month ago about these PIGS growing up so rapidly in the US. They’re all over Georgia, Arkansas, Texas, Florida, and other states. Did you ever wonder what happens to those people that just leave home and disappear but their car is found out on a dirt road? Between bigfoot and these monsters, I think we know!
This feral hog was killed by a medical radiology worker. What would you do if this beast was coming at you? Run for dear life? Climb a tree? Or simply get run over? This hog weighed over 1,800 pounds and was shot and killed near Conroe, Texas, near the county airport, east of I-45 and near the community of Cut and Shoot. Yep…only in Texas!”
In short, I can say without a doubt that this huge hog was not killed in Texas. Yes, the photos are impressive, but nothing in them looks like Texas. According to an article in the Conroe paper, no 1,800 pound wild boar has ever been seen near Conroe, Texas, let alone hunted, bagged, and photographed for all of eternity. Your average Texas feral hog weighs in at approximately 120 pounds, says a Texas Parks and Wildlife game warden quoted in the paper. An exceptionally large one might tip the scales at 300, which falls way short of a ton.
Additionally, it’s doubtful there is a feral hog anywhere that weighs 1,800 pounds. Yes, there have been reports of domestic hogs approaching or exceeding that weight, but the largest documented specimens in the wild have topped out at 1,100 pounds or less.
The huge hog in these hunt pictures was actually a 781 pound boar killed in Turkey in 2005. The biggest tip that this is the case that the “Nature Tours” logo on the side of a vehicle in one of the photos, which points to a Turkish hog hunting website on which the same images are displayed. So this huge hog was not killed in Texas, but there are some fairly big hogs there too – just not this big!