# Feral pigs **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 30, 2020, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feral-pigs/919380 "2020-08-30T16:58:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2020, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feral-pigs/919380/61 "2020-09-01T19:52:58Z")
> [@VOW](#): > > Your slaughterhouse description sounds like it came straight from “Soylent Green.” Monty Python, Season 2 ---
**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:** [September 1, 2020, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feral-pigs/919380/62 "2020-09-01T20:05:57Z")
Let’s see: Diseases of feral hog: Leptospirosis Tuberculosis Psuedo-rabies Hepatitis Tape worm Prion diseases Brucellosis (MSP) And many, many parasites. Mmmm, Add a nice wine and salad. Dinner is served. Yum yum. ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2020, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feral-pigs/919380/63 "2020-09-01T20:09:37Z")
@Beckdawrek And everybody’s favorite: trichinosis! ~VOW ---
**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:** [September 1, 2020, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feral-pigs/919380/64 "2020-09-01T20:14:38Z")
And not even listed any where I can find is the skin disease they carry. Y’all listen up, it is the grossest most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen or smelled. And I have 2 grandsons living in this house at the moment. I think it might be a bubonic plague thing. I saw one piglet whose whole face was a huge seeping boil. It’s eyes were bugged out and infected. I’ve had nightmares about that piglet. And people want to eat that?? Nope. ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2020, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feral-pigs/919380/65 "2020-09-01T20:23:18Z")
@Beckdawrek Soooooo cool! A new horror pic for Hollywood, maybe a Halloween sequel? Screaming, bumbling, scantily-clad teenagers shoot (with lots of "accidents), kill, cook, then EAT feral pigs! They’ll be puking in the aisles! ~VOW ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2020, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feral-pigs/919380/66 "2020-09-01T20:24:33Z")
Wouldn’t you know it, we’re having pork roast for dinner tonight! ~VOW ---
**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:** [September 1, 2020, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feral-pigs/919380/67 "2020-09-01T20:26:04Z")
@VOW, me and you could take over the world if given half a chance. Mmmm! Pork roast. Enjoy that. ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2020, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feral-pigs/919380/68 "2020-09-01T20:48:07Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > The feral pigs are not edible. > They carry every disease imaginable.e > Mr. Wrek says they never touch the dead pigs. The Rancher takes care if that. > Heck, maybe he’s getting the bounty. C’mon Beck, it’s not instant death. I’ve eaten them and am still here. I’d bet they’re as safe as other wild game, and I can say they’re quite tasty. IME, all animals in the wild are covered with ticks and stuff, and look nasty until skinned and cooked. In case anyone’s interested; I’ve hunted them some, but only with professionals using trained dogs (they let me hang out with them and help). The pros use 5-6 large dogs who are trained to snag their individual part of the hog. Only one goes for the head, and his goal is clamping on the pigs jaws. For some reason, they call him the “catch” dog and these tend to be large pit-like breeds. The others each go for a leg. Each dog has an armored vest and a GPS enabled tracking collar. Once the dogs are released, the hunters follow them on an iPad-like display showing each dog’s location, speed and track history. We follow on 4 wheelers as best we can. When all the tracks speed up and converge we know the dogs have zeroed in on a hog. This display is remarkably similar to the nav displays in airplanes, and even shows each dog by name. Usually they all converge and stop moving, and we drive the ATVs there as fast as we can. If the dogs have the pig held and clamped, one hunter straddles and cuts its throat. No bullets allowed due to the dogs. After that, the hunters make clever use of lineman pole spikes and ATV winches to hoist the beast onto one vehicle and return (if the intent is to eat it). In one case, the dogs had it so securely the pros lashed its jaws and returned it unharmed to a pen. It was pit-barbecued a few weeks later. On another hunt, the pig jumped in the river to escape (Hey Beck – it was the Saline. 🙂). The dogs followed it and took turns climbing on its back until it ran out of breath and returned to shore – with the inevitable outcome. In olden pre-GPS days, I went with hog hunters using those Jetson-looking handheld antennas to track the dogs (like old timey tracking stuff rangers used in the 70s). They would release them, then pull out their antennas and wave them around while listening to headphones. Apparently there’s an art to this, as they could pinpoint the direction to each dog pretty well and detect when they were converging on a point. One antenna/operator per dog. Sorry for the long post, but I thought it might be interesting to those who haven’t hunted them. Again, I’m no expert, just gone with pros several times and mainly tried to stay out of their way. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2020, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feral-pigs/919380/69 "2020-09-01T21:40:59Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > “This is a twelve-storey block combining classical neo-Georgian features with all the advantages of modern design. The tenants arrive in the entrance hall here, are carried along the corridor on a conveyor belt in extreme comfort and past murals depicting Mediterranean scenes, towards the rotating knives. The last twenty feet of the corridor are heavily soundproofed. The blood pours down these chutes and the mangled flesh slurps into these large containers–” Did you say knives? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2020, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feral-pigs/919380/70 "2020-09-01T22:03:53Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > I saw one piglet whose whole face was a huge seeping boil. It’s eyes were bugged out and infected. You don’t live near a nuclear power plant, do you? ---
**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:** [September 1, 2020, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feral-pigs/919380/71 "2020-09-01T22:12:54Z")
Arkansas is known for nuclear incidents. And y’all thought it was inbreeding. ---
**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:** [September 1, 2020, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feral-pigs/919380/72 "2020-09-01T22:36:11Z")
Interesting. I don’t think using dogs is a big thing in Texas. Well, not where BigWrek goes. As far as eating feral hog YMMV, but I ain’t cleaning, butchering, cooking or eating none of it. They eat each other for crissakes. Nasty. ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2020, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feral-pigs/919380/73 "2020-09-02T00:03:02Z")
Huh, I tested the link when I posted it (removing the spaces) and it worked (I thought) but maybe that was because I still had YT open in another tab. Tried it just now and it took me to a YT list of hog shootin’ vids of which the first one listed was the one I intended. In any event, thanks for telling me how to do it easier and better! Appreciated. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2020, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feral-pigs/919380/74 "2020-09-03T01:27:14Z")
> [@pullin](#): > > C’mon Beck, it’s not instant death. Yeah, not instant death, > [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Let’s see: > Diseases of feral hog: > Leptospirosis > Tuberculosis > Psuedo-rabies > Hepatitis > Tape worm > > # Prion diseases > Brucellosis (MSP) And many, many parasites. > > Mmmm, Add a nice wine and salad. Dinner is served. > > Yum yum. Do you understand what that is? Spongiform Encephalopathy? It literally turns your brain into casu marzu. You get clumsy, then stupid, then you eventually stop breathing. You get to watch yourself die. There is not way to stop it, and there is no way to cook out the prions. So, yeah, if that sounds like a picnic to you, tuck in. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2020, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feral-pigs/919380/75 "2020-09-03T02:23:11Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Do you understand what that is? Spongiform Encephalopathy? I suspect that @pullin knows what that is…as well as the importance of proper preparation and cooking of the meat. What is your experience hunting, @eschereal? ---
**Author:** ![Ynnad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4491bb/32.png) [@Ynnad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ynnad)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2020, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feral-pigs/919380/76 "2020-09-03T02:46:22Z")
One way to reduce, but not eliminate, exposure to Spongiform Encephalopathy-causing prions is to avoid eating the eyes, brain, or spinal column of wild game. ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2020, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feral-pigs/919380/77 "2020-09-03T05:09:13Z")
@lobotomyboy63 There is no cooking method that will destroy prion disease. ~VOW ---
**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:** [September 3, 2020, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feral-pigs/919380/78 "2020-09-03T07:16:24Z")
Proper way to prepare it? Umm? Have you ever seen a bunch of redneck hunters cleaning and butchering meat? Cleanliness is not top of the list of things to have. Food safety is not even considered. Plus they’re all drinking. Nope. Ol’beck will not be eating. I like my protein to come from the refrigerated section at the Grocery store with a nice purple stamp reading USDA. ---
**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:** [September 3, 2020, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feral-pigs/919380/79 "2020-09-03T07:24:30Z")
Regardless even the redneckiest of the guys around here wouldn’t eat feral hog. All you gotta do is smell the reeking garbage rot, that is essence of feral pigs, once and you’d get it. Not edible. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2020, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feral-pigs/919380/80 "2020-09-03T11:25:03Z")
My hunch is that hunters know. I was watching an episode of “Man, Woman, Wild” and the survival guy wanted to eat armadillo. I didn’t realize those were edible—and I’d make the distinction that I did not say “tasty.” Enjoying it is irrelevant…f you’re starving, could you eat it without getting sick? I’ve also read that **some** roadkill is edible. > **[How to Eat Roadkill: 9 Steps (with Pictures) - wikiHow](https://www.wikihow.com/Eat-Roadkill)** > > Roadkill is edible and people have been living off it since horse coaches and cars have been killing wildlife in the hundreds of thousands. If you're squeamish about the idea of consuming roadkill, then it's not going to be for you but for... **Some** feral hogs are inedible, certainly. If you’re a hunter and you shoot it from a safe distance maybe you walk up to your kill and realize that it’s diseased and you can’t consume it. Other times, you shot a good one and you can. At least once in recorded history someone ate it and survived. That doesn’t mean it’s always 100% safe but it shows that some feral hogs can be eaten. But even good meat can be dangerous if improperly prepared, so killing a suitable one isn’t the end of the story. I assume they know how to deal with the carcass etc. because it’s what they do…they’re hunters. If they get drunk and screw up, that’s on them. Zillions of fast food hamburgers have been consumed…but Jack in the Box once served E. coli hamburgers, so I don’t think anything is foolproof. > **[Jack in the Box E. coli Outbreak – 25th Anniversary](https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2017/12/jack-in-the-box-e-coli-outbreak-25th-anniversary/)** > > Editor's Note:  The following remembrance of the Jack-in-the-Box E. coli outbreak was penned by our Publisher Bill Marler and first posted in Food Poison > [@Beckdawrek](#): > > All you gotta do is smell the reeking garbage rot, that is essence of feral pigs, once and you’d get it. Ever hear of durian? > [@](#): > > Some people regard the durian as having a pleasantly sweet fragrance, whereas others find the aroma overpowering with an unpleasant odour. The smell evokes reactions from deep appreciation to intense disgust, and has been described variously as rotten onions, [turpentine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turpentine), and raw sewage. The persistence of its odour, which may linger for several days, has led to the fruit’s banishment from certain hotels and public transportation in [Southeast Asia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southeast_Asia). By contrast, the nineteenth-century British [naturalist](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_history) [Alfred Russel Wallace](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Russel_Wallace) described its flesh as “a rich [custard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Custard) highly flavoured with [almonds](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almond)”. > **[Durian](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durian)** > > There are currently 30 recognised species (see the List of Durio species) > The durian (/ˈdʊəriən/, /ˈdjʊəriən/) is the edible fruit of several tree species belonging to the genus Durio. There are 30 recognized Durio species, at least nine of which produce edible fruit. Durio zibethinus, native to Borneo and Sumatra, is the only species available on the international market. It has over 300 named varieties in Thailand and 100 in Malaysia as of 1987. Other species are sold in their local regions... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feral-pigs/919380.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feral-pigs/919380.md?page=5)