# Are hogs really so aggresively predacious as portrayed in some recent-ish movies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 13, 2019, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hogs-really-so-aggresively-predacious-as-portrayed-in-some-recent-ish-movies/827693 "2019-01-13T18:14:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![race\_to\_the\_bottom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c4cdca/32.png) [@race\_to\_the\_bottom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/race_to_the_bottom)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2019, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hogs-really-so-aggresively-predacious-as-portrayed-in-some-recent-ish-movies/827693/41 "2019-01-16T23:26:33Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > One would assume that pigs grown for food have been bred for docility while pigs in the wild have been bred by natural selection for a more aggressive temperament. > > I really don’t know the details, but comparing pigs that have been bred for food to wild boars is probably like comparing two totally different animals. I tend to agree. I was raised on a small farm in an area of small farms. Everyone had pigs. When they weren’t being eaten, they a were treated as pets. In the winter the pigs would burrow into a straw pile and my brothers and I would burrow in with them. They kept us warm. BTW, pigs are really clean. They reserve one special area as a latrine, unlike cattle who shit where they stand. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2019, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hogs-really-so-aggresively-predacious-as-portrayed-in-some-recent-ish-movies/827693/42 "2019-01-16T23:39:03Z")
> [@nightshadea](#): > > can you hunt them carol? feral pigs are one of the few things that you don’t need permits for and theres no limits usually > > im surprised the natives aren’t "pig sticking " like their ancestors …. Yes you can hunt them, and lots of people do. I believe Carol posted a long thread a while back about the pig trap on her property and her native neighbor who killed and roasted the pigs that were trapped in it. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2019, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hogs-really-so-aggresively-predacious-as-portrayed-in-some-recent-ish-movies/827693/43 "2019-01-16T23:52:21Z")
Shoot yeah, you can hunt them. Texas is full of them. Arkansas has it’s share. There’s a rasher(heh) of them living on our 90 acres. They haven’t got to the point of ruining stuff yet. When they do it’s bye-bye porky-pig. Mr.Wrekker won’t stand for it. The problem is getting rid of the meat. Nobody wants wild hog. Mr.Wrekker says they are wormy as heck. In Texas some exotic animal farms buy the carcasses to feed their big cats. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2019, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hogs-really-so-aggresively-predacious-as-portrayed-in-some-recent-ish-movies/827693/44 "2019-01-17T14:47:30Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > My mom had a cousin who married a farmer. They had pigs, amongst other livestock. Once, as a young child, I ventured into the pigpen, I don’t know why, those hogs were enormous. The guy came out and saw me in there and hollered at me in an angry, loud voice to get out of there. Later my mom told me he’d not been so angry as scared, since the pigs could be dangerous. My first introduction that animals usually depicted to kids as cute could be…not cute. That scene at the beginning of _The Wizard of Oz_ movie where Dorothy snags her foot and tumbles into the hog pen to everyone’s consternation? It wasn’t the hard ground they were concerned about. ---
**Author:** ![Shinna\_Minna\_Ma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@Shinna\_Minna\_Ma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shinna_Minna_Ma)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2019, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hogs-really-so-aggresively-predacious-as-portrayed-in-some-recent-ish-movies/827693/45 "2019-01-17T16:52:23Z")
There are wild boar where we used to live in the Shomron (a/k/a Samaria). They’d come out of the olive groves at night (they’re nocturnal) and dig up back yards and make lots of noise. Residents were told that if we were ever chased by a boar, zig-zag while running, since a boar’s eyesight isn’t that good. Also, even those with rifles were told not to shoot at the boars - the ammunition in their rifles wasn’t big enough to damage the boars. Every once in a while, the local council would bring in professional boar hunters. That’s when we’d get text messages saying things like, “If you hear any gunshots in the wadi tonight between 22:00 and 02:00, it’s only the boar hunters.” ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2019, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hogs-really-so-aggresively-predacious-as-portrayed-in-some-recent-ish-movies/827693/46 "2019-01-17T19:08:58Z")
In the old legends, folks were terrified of cows (bulls), pigs (boars), sheep (rams), and deer (stags). just going into the wildnerness risked getting fucked up by animals that we now think of as domesticated. ---
**Author:** ![Reindeer\_Flotilla](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reindeer_flotilla/32/3024_2.png) [@Reindeer\_Flotilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reindeer_Flotilla)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2019, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hogs-really-so-aggresively-predacious-as-portrayed-in-some-recent-ish-movies/827693/47 "2019-01-17T22:44:27Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > That scene at the beginning of _The Wizard of Oz_ movie where Dorothy snags her foot and tumbles into the hog pen to everyone’s consternation? It wasn’t the hard ground they were concerned about. Umm… > [@Atamasama](#): > > I’ve never watched the show but I did read post #11 in this thread so I do remember. 🙂 Alas [poor post #11](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=21428595&postcount=11)! I knew him, **DesertDog** : a post of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: it hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2019, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hogs-really-so-aggresively-predacious-as-portrayed-in-some-recent-ish-movies/827693/48 "2019-01-18T12:35:59Z")
Ah. I overlooked that last part of post #11. Still, more than one farmer “got et by the hogs” when he was rendered helpless and when I saw the scene as a tot, I thought it was the tumble they were worried about, not where she’d landed. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2019, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hogs-really-so-aggresively-predacious-as-portrayed-in-some-recent-ish-movies/827693/49 "2019-01-18T14:44:26Z")
> [@Nansbread1](#): > > There are many images on the web of people, mainly women, who have pigs as pets. Indoors too. > > [Indoor Pig Care | Pets on Mom.com](https://animals.mom.me/indoor-pig-care-2017.html) There was a craze of having pot-bellied pigs and kunekune pigs as pets. They are pretty small and presumably less dangerous. My local children’s petting zoo has kunekune pigs, so they must be pretty safe. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2019, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hogs-really-so-aggresively-predacious-as-portrayed-in-some-recent-ish-movies/827693/50 "2019-01-18T15:22:05Z")
_Old Yeller_ is where I learned pigs are not to be trifled with. They’d just finished fucking up the dog and I turned and looked at Mom who (having been a farm-born Arkansas girl) confirmed they were dangerous precisely because they were absolutely hateful savages that don’t look particularly dangerous. Her mom had her leg gnawed pretty badly (this would have been in the late 40s-early 50s) and it was apparently a pretty impressive feat that she didn’t lose the leg. I always feel a sense of turnabout when I eat pork. Like “We won…this time.” ---
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2019, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hogs-really-so-aggresively-predacious-as-portrayed-in-some-recent-ish-movies/827693/51 "2019-01-18T15:58:35Z")
There was an episode of Criminal Minds that had the bad guys feeding their victims to the pigs. [https://www.videodetective.com/tv/criminal-minds-to-hell-and-back/457159](https://www.videodetective.com/tv/criminal-minds-to-hell-and-back/457159) ---
**Author:** ![filmstar-en](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/50afbb/32.png) [@filmstar-en](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmstar-en)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2019, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hogs-really-so-aggresively-predacious-as-portrayed-in-some-recent-ish-movies/827693/52 "2019-01-19T21:12:38Z")
> [@pool](#): > > I read an alleged historical account from the Medieval ages once that said a pig had eaten a baby alive. The community in their wisdom forced the pig to dress in clothing, put it on trial, and had it at the stand to face accusations and everything. Not sure if it was true or not but said pig was sentenced to death and executed, no word on if the bacon tasted better. Animals were sometimes put on trial in the Middle Ages, but it was usually connected with local political intrigues. Here is a very entertaining movie about it: ‘The Advocate’. The pig has a good lawyer played by Colin Firth. 😃 > **[The Advocate (1993) ⭐ 6.6 | Crime, Drama, Mystery](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107146/)** > > 1h 42m | R [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hogs-really-so-aggresively-predacious-as-portrayed-in-some-recent-ish-movies/827693.md?page=2)