Hogzilla… or Hogadilla?

You may or may not have heard of the legendary Hogzilla.

You may or may not have known it was called Hogzilla, depending on what parts you’re from.

“Around these parts,” the article states, “they are calling it Hogzilla.”

Hog-zilla.

Anyway, it’s a great headline-maker, as far as quirky news stories go. And it’s also a great human-interest story, one that sees no one [no human, anyway] slaughtered, arrested, etc.; it’s the story of a boy and his hog… his 12 foot, 1,000lb hog that he killed, anyway.

Of course, any right-thinkin’ person might be set a-wonderin’ after reading how the gigantic terror of a hog was killed, strung up, photographed… and then buried, without any keepsakes to pass from father to son?

Snopes thinks it’s a wee bit exaggerated as well, and has a pretty good write-up on the beast. A 1000lb wild hog, like many other things, is difficult to disprove entirely, but Snopes does a good job of showing why we might doubt the claims as to its enormity.

What it all boils down to is two questions and—conveniently enough—two answers.

Q: Was a wild hog killed? (And did somebody nickname it ‘Hogzilla’?)
A: Yes.

Q: Did it weigh 1,000lbs, etc. etc. etc.?
A: Almost certainly not.

So there you have it.

(AP: “Legend grows around 1,000-pound hog reportedly killed on Ga. plantation,” by Elliott Minor [July 28, 2004]; Snopes article)