An Alabama man and his dog are shocked to see an unexpected visitor near their home.
Wade Seago knew something was going on outside his house last week when the family’s pet schnauzer, Cruiser, began barking constantly. The Seagos live on 100 acres in a rural southern Alabama town. It’s not uncommon for your dog to bark at deer, raccoons, or other wild visitors.
However, this was different. As he was about to get up and see his dog, his daughter started screaming. “I jumped in to see what was going on,” Wade explained. “I looked out the back window and didn’t see anything, so I ran to the front of the house where my daughter was looking out the window. I couldn’t believe what she was seeing.”
As he was about to get up and see his dog, his daughter started screaming. “I jumped in to see what was going on,” Wade explained. “I looked out the back window and didn’t see anything, so I ran to the front of the house where my daughter was looking out the window. I couldn’t believe what she was seeing.”
The dog had a huge wild hog howling in his front yard, about 16 feet from the front porch. “Cruiser had this huge pig confused with all the barking and moving,” Wade continued. “It was not a good situation.”
“Cruiser had this huge pig confused with all the barking and moving,” Wade continued. “It was not a good situation.”
Seago is an avid deer hunter and runs a taxidermy business in Samson. In addition, he was a prison guard for several years. He said pigs are plentiful in the area and he has seen them on his property before, but none the size of this one.
Wade feared the huge pig would hurt or kill the family pet, so he grabbed a .38-caliber revolver he keeps for home defense and stepped out onto the front porch. Related: Feral Hogs Cause Big Problems for the East Tennessee Ecosystem.
“When I was in position to shoot, the pig was about 40 feet away,” Wade said. “Cruiser was out of my line with the pig, so I shot.”
It took three shots to bring it down. The giant pig fell to the ground near the garage. The next day, Wade took the wild hog to Brooks Peanut Company and weighed it on the drive-thru scale. The pig weighed 820 pounds and had six-inch tusks.
According to the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, feral hogs in Alabama pose a serious threat to native wildlife.
High reproductive rates, lack of natural predators, voracious omnivorous feeding habits, destructive rooting behavior, and habitat destruction are just a few reasons Alabama sportsmen and land managers are encouraged to help to control this non-native species.
The US Department of Agriculture estimates that feral hogs cause more than $800 million in agricultural damage in the United States annually.
Wild hogs are considered a game animal in Alabama and have no closed season or bag limits. This means that on private land, hunters can legally hunt hogs every day of the year with no harvest restrictions.
“I didn’t think twice about taking this pig down,” Wade concluded. “I would do it again tomorrow.”
