Beasts
of the Southern Wild was a good movie with a catchy title. But the subject matter should have been
different. The title should have been used on the huge wild hogs of the deep
south. They truly are beasts of epic, legendary proportions that defy description
and need pictures. They need epic
nicknames.
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| Hogzilla Jr. done in by heavy artillery in Eastern Carolina |
About
ten years ago, there was an expose and intense controversy on Hogzilla, a 1000-poundhog shot in Georgia that was nine feet long. Let’s get out minds around that
one. The thing was as big as a cow, and had tusks. It was like a large shark on land, running
untamed through the Georgia woods until someone shot it and the whole thing was
put on TV. Some called BS. Some said that such a thing couldn’t happen. That it
was made up. Or perhaps, they just
thought it had crossed the border from Florida where things like that are not
only considered possible but probable.
Now,
Hogzilla’s slightly smaller brother has been shot in Eastern Carolina. (see full story here). It was officially on the northern side of the
bi-state line, but anyone who is from the Carolinas or has spent any time there
will tell you that there are three Carolinas. North Carolina, which is mostly
civilized, home to huge banks and the Research Triangle and some piney woods. North
Carolina brings us technology and basketball. South Carolina brought us Stephen
Colbert and Mark Sanford, the former governor who was hiking the South American
trail with his mistress for days on end as a massive man-hunt went on. South Carolina brings us comedy. Then there’s East Carolina. It has its own university. It is the eastern
side of both Carolinas and is in the lowlands and has no cultural or other ties
to the rest of the Carolinas. It is its own land that is closer to Northern
Florida than to the Research Triangle.
It
also has a massive, epic hog problem, and guys with what look like automatic
rifles in hunting clubs to hunt them down.
There
was a hogzilla running around Eastern Carolina that some said was almost as big
as the epic Georgia hogzilla. Years of
stalking, hunting, and gearing up finally got it. It was so big that the hunting club’s scale,
which tops out at 500 pounds didn’t even hold its head or feet. As you can see, it has a huge head. It will make enough sausage to feed the
hunter’s family for a year. You can
imagine the damage that thing did to the woods and other woodland creatures. Can you imagine being a raccoon in the woods
and seeing that thing coming? A goat?
Thankfully
the well-armed folks of East Carolina got this hogzilla. There are more out
there in the swamps. God help us if they get to the beer or the whiskey stills
that still dot the lowland swamps.
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