Re: Did he kill it because it was big
[link|http://news.mywebpal.com/partners/680/public/news811506.html|Both, apparently] (H/T to Andrew G, downthread):
The monster hog gained worldwide acclaim after he was harvested by 11-year-old Jamison Stone, a Pickensville native, with a .50-caliber pistol on May 3 at the Lost Creek Plantation, LLC, a hunting preserve in Delta. The big boar was hunted inside a large, low-fence enclosure and fired upon 16 times by Stone, who struck the animal nearly a half-dozen times during the three-hour hunt.
...
Phil Blissitt purchased the pig for his wife as a Christmas gift in December of 2004. From 6 weeks old, they raised the pig as it grew to its enormous size.
Not long ago, they decided to sell off all of their pigs. Eddy Borden, owner of Lost Creek Plantation, purchased Fred.
...
While Rhonda Blissitt was somewhat in the dark about the potential demise of her pet, Phil Blissitt said he was under the understanding that it would breed with other female pigs and then "probably be hunted."
...
As the Blissitts recounted the events of the last two days, they told stories and made many references to the gentleness of their former "pet."
From his treats of canned sweet potatoes to how their grandchildren would play with him, their stories painted the picture of a gentle giant. They even talked about how their small Chihuahua would get in the pen with him and come out unscathed.
...
"But if they hadn't fed him in a while," Rhonda Blissitt said, "he could have gotten irate."
Ah, the manly arts! Plinking tame prey (quite likely astonished to be taking fire from a primate, since until a few days before the bipeds in his life had been the agreeable providers of buckets of slop and like delicacies) in a fenced enclosure with .50-calibre rounds for three hours. How jolly! How character-building! It's as though we'd been privileged to have...a glimpse of Dick Cheney in boyhood!
I'm unenthusiastic about hunting, but I'm aware that I do not exactly bring impeccable PETA credentials to this party, since I've consumed many a porkchop derived from swine slain on assembly lines. Still, this somehow fails the smell test for me. I think Ashton's take is just about right.
cordially,
Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist.
