National Geographic confirms 'Hogzilla's' existence <br /><br />3-21-05<br /><br />By Elliott Minor, Associated Press Writer <br /><br /><br />Posted 4:25 p.m.<br /><br />ALAPAHA, Ga. (AP) — Residents of this south Georgia town breathed a collective sigh of vindication Monday after a National Geographic documentary confirmed that their legendary super swine Hogzilla was indeed real, and really, really big.<br /><br /><br />Chris Griffin, 31, poses beside the half-ton wild hog he shot near Alapaha, Ga., in June. <br />(AP file photo) <br /> <br /><br /><br />"Our insides were just bubbling," said Darlene Turner, who hosted a Hogzilla-watching party at her home Sunday night. "At first, I was afraid it might be an embarrassment. But now I wish everybody could see the documentary. It would take the doubt out of people's minds."<br /><br />While a team of National Geographic experts found that the hog caught on a nearby farm last summer was no hoax, they said it didn't quite live up to the 1,000-pound, 12-foot hype that was trumpeted around the world with a photo of the beast hanging from a backhoe.<br /><br />The experts, who donned biohazard suits and exhumed the behemoth's smelly remains, estimated that Hogzilla was probably only 7½ to 8 feet long and weighed about 800 pounds. Still, that's a mighty big hog.<br /><br />"He was an impressive beast. He was definitely a freak of nature," said documentary producer Nancy Donnelly, adding that that Hogzilla's tusks — one measuring 17 and 10-sixteenths inches and the other 15 and 13-sixteenths inches — set a new Safari Club International North American free-range record.<br /><br />But that wasn't good enough for Ken Holyoak, owner of the 1,500-acre fish farm and hunting preserve where Hogzilla was shot by guide Chris Griffin. He issued a "rebuttal" Monday after seeing the documentary.<br /><br />"I need to stress that they did not have that much to work with, seeing as how the poor beast had been underground for nearly six months," he said.<br /><br />Holyoak said Hogzilla weighed in at half a ton on his farm scales and that he personally measured the hog's length at 12 feet while the freshly killed beast was dangling by straps from a backhoe.<br /><br />"As with any organic being after death, tissues will decompose and the body will atrophy, making actual measurements change over time," Holyoak said. "Have you ever seen a raisin after it was a grape?"<br /><br />But National Geographic's Donnelly said the experts allowed for some shrinkage in making their final estimate.<br /><br />Despite the dispute, this town 180 miles south of Atlanta has already adopted Hogzilla as its own. It went with a Hogzilla theme for its fall festival, with a parade featuring a Hogzilla princess, children in pink pig outfits and a float carrying a Hogzilla replica.<br /><br />Mark Hall, a south Georgia native who now teaches English at California State University in Chico, donned his Hogzilla T-shirt, cooked up a few pork dishes and invited a dozen friends over Sunday to watch the documentary.<br /><br />"I'm not sure what folks expected, but they learned a lot about south Georgia," said Hall, who spent his childhood in nearby Albany. "Most of my friends know I'm prone to exaggerate when I tell a story, so these folks weren't surprised at all to see that these fellows in south Georgia may have stretched the truth."<br /><br />For Hall, getting the scientific facts on Hogzilla was somewhat of a letdown.<br /><br />"Now it's not a legend, not a myth," he said. "I thought it was a much more interesting story when we could just imagine and just retell the story.<br /><br />"Anybody from the Deep South knows that ... a believable story starts with a kernel of truth," he said. "It starts there, but it doesn't necessarily end there."<br /><br />The documentary left open the possibility that some of Hogzilla's offspring may be getting fat in the cypress swamps near Alapaha, but it could be years before there's another a legendary hog like the one buried beneath a white cross on Holyoak's farm.<br /><br />
<br /><br />BTW Matt, if I see Bigfoot in the woods, he's going down...and you can call me a silly redneck 