Alabama big pig followup July 31, 2008 12:20 AM   Subscribe

Remember the big pig kill? Death threats came of it.

Just a bit of followup to an old story. It caused some upset on MeFi but, good lord, death threats? That's more sick than anything that happened in the hunt.
posted by five fresh fish to MetaFilter-Related at 12:20 AM (46 comments total)

Let's also not forget that pig is tasty (as some London mefites didn't get to find out last weekend)
posted by Jofus at 12:48 AM on July 31, 2008


Holy dammit, that's some good looking roast porker.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 1:10 AM on July 31, 2008


No way Fox News or a dirtball family already established as liars would sensationalize the story.

Also, it's the Internet. There are probably bloggers who have received death threats for offering their opinion on a low-calorie cheese.
posted by Mayor Curley at 2:05 AM on July 31, 2008 [8 favorites]


I like how smoothly Fox News works in the obligatory terrarist reference ("cutting off his head..."). It's just red meat for its dumb readership gristle for the mill.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 4:32 AM on July 31, 2008


That kid was on the hog's back until this happened.



(Actually he was standing a few meters behind the hog so that it looked bigger than it really was, it's like photoshopping in real time).
posted by Elmore at 4:41 AM on July 31, 2008 [1 favorite]


petition (which curiously fails to clearly state just what is being requested other than "justice" which is implied to involve prosecution but of whom and for what specific crime)
posted by caddis at 4:42 AM on July 31, 2008


To summarize: A family bought a farm hog, drove it out into the woods, and watched their 11 year-old son kill it over a period of three hours by shooting it repeatedly with a low caliber pistol.

They then digitally altered the photos to make the hog look like a monster, made up a story that made the kid sound like a monster-slayer, and peddled the photos to every news outlet they could find.

Their story is quickly revealed as bogus and now there is some blowback. Animal cruelty charges have been dropped but nutters continue to send nasty emails to the family.

Conservative news organizations ignore all but the beginning of the story (child hero kills monster hog) and the end (deranged liberal terrorists threaten peaceful Alabama family) and take perverse pleasure in cowering from one of their favorite straw bogeymen, the militant animal-rights activist. Threat level orange.

Liberal community blogs notice conservative news organizations having a tizzy and spend their morning writing a few paragraphs about it when really they should be busy doing their work.
posted by The Loch Ness Monster at 4:45 AM on July 31, 2008 [26 favorites]


Orange was sch a nice color until this threat level nonsense. Thanks for the summary TLNM and the post, fff.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 5:24 AM on July 31, 2008


Remember the big pig kill?

Never heard of it before now.

Death threats came of it.

Was it Miss Piggy or Porco Rosso?
posted by octobersurprise at 5:41 AM on July 31, 2008


Last night I dreamt that I posted to MeTa. The post was gobbledigook and and when I re-read it I thought I had had a stroke. This dream has to mean something.

Analyze and discuss.
posted by mds35 at 5:57 AM on July 31, 2008


For about 2 weeks in 1986 my family and I received occasional death threats by telephone because I said something bad about Reagan in the local newspaper. Scared my poor mother shitless, the local police where somewhat unconcerned and it all eventually blew over. I don't think anyone really started taking death threats that seriously until after Columbine.

But, I'm willing to bet that there are death threats from insane people whizzing around often. Probably some to anyone involved in even the most mundane public controversy.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 6:07 AM on July 31, 2008


We haven't had any sort of update at all to the Homeland Security threat level in almost two years. I DON'T KNOW HOW SCARED TO BE ANYMORE.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 6:10 AM on July 31, 2008 [4 favorites]


Orange is still a nice color; it just has a new Crayola name now.
posted by danb at 6:12 AM on July 31, 2008


TheOnlyCoolTim writes "We haven't had any sort of update at all to the Homeland Security threat level in almost two years. I DON'T KNOW HOW SCARED TO BE ANYMORE."

Don't worry, it should start oscillating up and down any day now.
posted by Mitheral at 6:19 AM on July 31, 2008


That's more sick than anything that happened in the hunt.

So death threats by Internet Tough Guys are more unethical than torturing a living being for three hours? Interesting.
posted by turgid dahlia at 6:31 AM on July 31, 2008


Tonga has learned how to perfect powerful pig imagery without the use of photoshop. (Context here)
posted by KokuRyu at 7:19 AM on July 31, 2008


Man, I missed this whole thing the first time around, I guess.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:42 AM on July 31, 2008


Yeah, it's a shame about the death threats, but lets blame the family who decided to go for their 15 minutes of fame through blatant lies and Photoshop trickery. This is kind of poetic justice.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 7:45 AM on July 31, 2008


shooting it repeatedly with a low caliber pistol.

Just to be clear here, the article calls the gun that killed this pig as a .50 caliber revolver. They are referring to to a Smith & Wesson .500 Magnum, which produces up to 2500 foot pounds of pressure with it's most energetic load. To put this in perspective (for non-gun-types), this is roughly the equivalent to the 7.62mm NATO round that police snipers use, or to put it another way, it's a gun that has more than twice the of energy of a .44 Magnum; Dirty Harry's 'most powerful handgun in the world'.

Now, I agree that using a pistol (even if it's an exceptionally powerful one) to hunt a 1000 pound animal is kind of stupid, but calling what the kid was using a "low caliber pistol" is really underestimating the power of this thing.
posted by quin at 8:10 AM on July 31, 2008 [1 favorite]


Are ya achin
(yub yub yub)
For some bacon?
(yub yub yub)
He's a big pig!
(yub yub yub)
You can be a big pig too!

Sorry, my son is big into Lion King at the moment and this song never fails to make me laugh. I like to share my dementia.
posted by never used baby shoes at 8:21 AM on July 31, 2008


I'd be a little more impressed if the kid had been the one with seven bullets in him when he brought the pig down. The story doesn't say so specifically, but as far as I can tell the pig didn't even have a gun.

Heh.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:51 AM on July 31, 2008


I'd be a little more impressed...

If the kid did the retouching himself using gimp on a 386 processor.
posted by StickyCarpet at 9:24 AM on July 31, 2008 [1 favorite]


This story is unique in just how very many people involved need told a big fat "Fuck you."
posted by dosterm at 9:30 AM on July 31, 2008 [1 favorite]


Just to be clear here, the article calls the gun that killed this pig as a .50 caliber revolver.

Except that like the fatness of the pig this appears to have been faked also. It's unclear what weapon the lad used, but it was no high powered rifle and no .500 magnum.
posted by caddis at 9:46 AM on July 31, 2008


Fox is still calling poor Fred a "wild pig"?

Anyway, it's a really nasty story, and the worst offenders were the hunting club owners, apparently, who tried to hype the domestic pig as a feral monster, and who were shopping the hunt to media before the fact. According to this article: "Mike Stone told me that a local TV station said to the hunters that if they wanted a news story, only the boy could shoot the pig — no adults. So the three professional hunters, Borden, Williams and O'Neil, armed with rifles, stood by for hours and watched as the hog eventually bled out in order to, ultimately, promote their hunting business." Horrible.
posted by taz at 9:48 AM on July 31, 2008 [3 favorites]


Surprised the boy didn't accidentally take out his porker dad instead.
posted by Liosliath at 10:00 AM on July 31, 2008 [1 favorite]


I could really go for some bacon right about now.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 10:08 AM on July 31, 2008


Man, that story brought out the worst kind of smug bigotry in MeFites. Sorry to see it rehashed, though I appreciate the update.
posted by languagehat at 10:42 AM on July 31, 2008


And I too have a sudden craving for bacon.
posted by languagehat at 10:42 AM on July 31, 2008


*gently rubs pork loin with rosemary, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper and grills over hot coals*

And I get the end cuts!
posted by fixedgear at 10:52 AM on July 31, 2008


I'm suddenly craving pasta. Maybe something with vodka sauce? Mmm.
posted by The Loch Ness Monster at 10:53 AM on July 31, 2008


So people who boast about asinine, inhumane things they do get backlash from people who have problems with inhumane things?

I'm glad that the system works.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 11:01 AM on July 31, 2008


Well, the truly awful part was the three hours of torture for the pig - because it had to be the child who killed the animal, otherwise no TV coverage. That's the most execrable part of the story. Ethical hunters would never have let that happen.
posted by taz at 11:07 AM on July 31, 2008 [1 favorite]


(I feel very sorry for the boy, btw. He is just a little kid.)
posted by taz at 11:08 AM on July 31, 2008


and no .500 magnum.

I'm not so sure, the pistol he is holding in this photo sure looks a bit like a S&W 500 (specifically the length of the cylinder and the compensator on the end), so if he didn't actually use it, he did, at least, appear to have had access to one.

Though with how much of this story was bullshit, I wouldn't be surprised if this was an after the fact prop as well. I remember when the story first broke my thought was "They gave a kid access to a handgun with that much recoil? Are they nuts?"
posted by quin at 11:14 AM on July 31, 2008 [1 favorite]


That poor pig, though it is questionable how much or whether his experience was worse than what awaited him in a modern slaughterhouse.
posted by jamjam at 11:37 AM on July 31, 2008 [1 favorite]


In re the quote taz pasted:

I don't wish death on this poor kid. Or even prosecution, since the law is all kinds of fucked up when it comes to canned hunting operations.

I do hope, however, that when he reaches 9th grade and has to read Lord of the Flies in English class, that his nightmares will prominently feature him in the role of Piggy, for the rest of his damn life.

And those adults deserve a pointy faux-leather boot up their asses.
posted by mudpuppie at 12:13 PM on July 31, 2008


Seriously?!

Threatening to kill a living breathing citizen of the United States isn't as bad as torturing a non-sentient, stupid farm animal?

So Meat is murder, and Veal is Abu Ghareb?

I just don't understand the way some radical animal rights nut jobs think.
posted by Megafly at 12:18 PM on July 31, 2008


torturing a non-sentient, stupid farm animal?

sen·tient ˈsen(t)-sh(ē-)ənt, ˈsen-tē-ənt
1 : responsive to or conscious of sense impressions; sentient beings
posted by StickyCarpet at 12:42 PM on July 31, 2008 [1 favorite]


But ... didn't they photoshop the monsterpig out of the picture. Oh, no sorry, that was the dad.
posted by essexjan at 1:45 PM on July 31, 2008


Megafly, it's hard to argue that threatening death over the internet isn't much less of a big deal than torturing a farm animal, no?
posted by Squid Voltaire at 2:13 PM on July 31, 2008


I'd be a little more impressed if the kid had been the one with seven bullets in him when he brought the pig down. The story doesn't say so specifically, but as far as I can tell the pig didn't even have a gun.

Was the pig black? Send some cops in there, I'm sure they can still "find" a gun.
posted by inigo2 at 2:30 PM on July 31, 2008


You'd best be trolling boy.
posted by turgid dahlia at 2:51 PM on July 31, 2008


"I want to stab you to death and play around in your blood" is actually in my email sig.
posted by turgid dahlia at 3:10 PM on July 31, 2008


Talk like that is what got hilter permabanned.
posted by blue_beetle at 3:10 PM on July 31, 2008


There are probably bloggers who have received death threats for offering their opinion on a low-calorie cheese.

*raises hand*

In retrospect, I should never have gotten into a pissing match with Kraft Foods. And the cheese WAS Terror Alert Orange.
posted by wendell at 9:18 PM on July 31, 2008


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