Did come across a rogue pig on the side of a road recently, they can be elusive and difficult to catch.
Have you heard about this pig war?
Wonder if he really said this quote lol:
When Griffin found out about the death of the pig, he went to confront Cutlar. According to some rather sketchy reports, the conversation went something as follows:
“Cutlar: “…but it was eating my potatoes!”
Griffin: “Rubbish. It’s up to you to keep your potatoes out of my pig”.”
Then the really serious escalation of sending in the infantry and almost starting a war over this contested Island:
"Cutlar did, however, offer to pay Griffin a sum of $10 in compensation for the dead pig but this was refused. Instead Griffin reported Cutlar to the local British authorities who threatened to arrest him, much to the anger of the local American citizens who subsequently drew up a petition requesting US Military protection.
This petition was received by General William S. Harney, the commander of the Department of Oregon. Harney’s anti-British views were well known at the time, and without much of a second thought he sent a 66-man company of the US 9th infantry to San Juan on July 27th 1859."
General William S. Harney
Upon hearing of this news, James Douglas, the governor of British Columbia, decided to send three British warships to the area as a show of force. During the following month there was a stand off, with both sides slowly increasing their military presence in the area and with the US 9th infantry refusing to budge, even thought they were massively outnumbered."
It was not until the arrival of Admiral Robert L. Baynes:
Commander-in-Chief of the British Navy in the Pacific, that things were to change. When he finally arrived, James Douglas ordered Baynes to land his troops on San Juan Island and to engage the US 9th infantry. Baynes refused, famously stating that he would not “involve two great nations in a war over a squabble about a pig”.
By this time, word has finally reached both Washington and London about the escalating crisis. Officials on both sides of the Atlantic were shocked that a dispute over a pig had grown into a stand off involving as many as 3 warships, 84 guns and over 2,600 men.
There is a major city on this Island today, Friday Harbor, near Victoria B.C.
Here in the south, pretty much everywhere, there was a release of Russian boars that made hunting a challenge and a “sport”. These pigs have crossed with domestic varieties (the sow at my ranch is a cross with a Poland China, the boar mostly Russian) and are extremely destructive to pasture land. Searching for food, they tear up the soil, rooting deeply, and they are extremely aggressive if with young. I have had a sow chase me in my side-by-side. They breed several times per year with litters as many as a dozen or more piglets and they are primarily nocturnal, hiding in the brush very effectively. Most serious hunters use dogs as the smell of these pigs is pretty strong, but these fierce animals can be deadly to dogs and other animals. This is why the horror stories show how to get rid of unwanted corpses using pigs. They eat everything and anything.
As strange as it seems, those feral hogs COULD BE a major food source once most domestic sources are destroyed. I’ve lived in So. TX years ago and they’ve overrun most everything. Gardening, even with electric fencing is almost useless.
Ours became part of our annual smoked venison sausage ritual- we removed 40 in one year and saved our pastures, our fawns and our turkeys. We fed a LOT of people that year!