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Alabama man shoots 820-pound 'wild' hog in front yard

By Ben Hooper
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July 20 (UPI) -- An Alabama man whose dog was making a ruckus outside went to investigate and ended up shooting an 820-pound hog in his yard.

Wade Seago said his family's schnauzer, Cruiser, was making a lot of noise outside July 11, and he went to investigate when he heard his daughter scream.

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"I jumped up to see what was going on," Seago told AL.com. "I looked out the back window and saw nothing, so I ran to the front of the house where my daughter was looking out the window. I couldn't believe what I was seeing."

Seago said the dog had a massive hog bayed about 5 yards from the family's front porch.

"Cruiser had this huge hog confused with all of the barking and movement," Seago said. "It was not a good situation."

He said he was concerned the hog could injure Cruiser, so he retrieved his .38-caliber revolver from inside the house and went out to the porch.

"By the time I got in a position to shoot, the hog was about 12 yards away," Seago said. "Cruiser was out of my line to the hog so I fired."

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Seago characterized the hog as "wild," but local resident Trish Garcia said the hog had actually escaped from a pen in her yard. She said the hog wasn't a pet, but had been loaned to her to breed with some of her hogs.

Garcia said she doesn't blame Seago for shooting the hog on his property.

Seago said in a Facebook post it took three shots to fell the hog. He said he had to take the hog to a local business to be weighed the next day because its massive carcass broke the cable on his skinning rack.

The hog, which boasted 6-inch tushes, weighed in at 820 pounds.

Eugene Randle, a geospatial specialist who researches wild boars as a hobby, said its rare for a turly wild hog to reach more than 400 pounds. He said the hog likely hadn't been on the loose for long enough to be feral.

"This one was probably trying to go home," Randle told the Dothan Eagle. "He had just had a change of address."

The Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources allows residents to shoot wild hogs on their property without limits. They are considered a game animal with no closed seasons or bag limits.

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