update:
‘Monster Pig’ was huge — just not wild
Giant hog shot by Alabama 11-year-old was farm-raised porker named Fred
The Associated Press
Updated: 9:43 p.m. ET June 1, 2007
FRUITHURST, Ala. - The huge hog that became known as "Monster Pig" after being killed by an 11-year-old boy was raised on a farm where it had another name: Fred.
Phil Blissitt said he purchased the 6-week-old pig in December 2004 as a Christmas gift for his wife, Rhonda, and they sold it to the owner of Lost Creek Plantation after deciding to get rid of all the pigs at their farm.
He told The Anniston Star in a story Friday that the sale was four days before the hog was killed in a 150-acre fenced area of the plantation.
"I just wanted the truth to be told. That wasn't a wild pig," Rhonda Blissitt said.
The Blissitts said they didn't know the huge hog drawing widespread media attention was Fred until they were contacted by Andy Howell, game warden for the Alabama Department of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries, whose agency found that no laws were violated in the hunt.
"Did you see that pig on TV?" Phil Blissitt recalled Howell asking. "I said, 'Yeah, I had one about that size.' He said, 'No, that one is yours.'
"That's when I knew."'
Phil Blissitt said he became irritated when he learned that some thought the photos of Fred were doctored.
"That was a big hog," he said.
Mike Stone, the father of Jamison Stone, the 11-year-old boy who shot the huge hog to death during what they described as a three-hour chase, has said the hog weighed more than 1,000 pounds and was more than 9 feet long. He told the Star he had been under the impression that the hog was wild, not farm-raised.
"We were told that it was a feral hog," Mike Stone told the Star, "and we hunted it on the pretense that it was a feral hog."
Telephone messages left Friday with Eddy Borden, the owner of Lost Creek Plantation, were not immediately returned.
© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
(source:
MSNBC)
