NC: Alert Neighbor Stops Rampaging Hog; Media credits Officials

The 200+ pound feral hog pictured above was causing considerable damage when one of he neighbors shot the pig with a .40 caliber handgun.  From wbtv.com

Gaston County Animal Care and Enforcement responded to the 4000 block of Wimbledon Drive Sunday where there were reports of a vicious hog that had been charging residents in the area and damaging property, according to Captain Jentsch with the Gaston County Police Department.

Jentsch said that a neighbor shot the hog before Gaston County Police officers arrived on scene and euthanized the animal.

 The reporter found a neighbor who complained about the armed citizen taking action:

She said she now arms herself with a baseball bat before she walks her child to the bus stop in the mornings. Gray said she was also alarmed when one of her neighbors tried to kill the hog with a firearm.

“That was probably as scary as the wild (hog),” explained Gray. “Let the correct authorities take care of it. Don’t by any means try to go out there and handle it yourself.”

Grey’s thinking seems a bit muddled.  She is concerned about wild animals in the neighborhood enough to carry a baseball bat to the bus stop, but does not want anyone in the neighborhood to take effective action separate from the “correct authorities”.  A baseball bat is not likely to be effective against a large feral hog.

It is not as if the suburban neighborhood is so densely populated that there are no safe directions to shoot.  There seems to be plenty of open space, and hogs are low enough to ground that the ground will act as a back stop.

This hog was quite aggressive, and may have been rabid.  One neighbor said that the animal was foaming at the mouth.

Another news story does not even mention that it was an armed citizen who initially shot the animal, and that police only finished it off.  From KTC Broadcasting: 

DALLAS – After a wild hog raised a ruckus charging people in the neighborhood on Wimbledon Drive in Dallas police were called and animal was put down. The hog weighed over 200 pounds and before being shot by the police done some damage to a vehicle. It took three shots from a high powered rifle to bring the animal down.

Rabid animals can be surprisingly tenacious.  Because rabies affects the brain, they do not have normal responses.  Many accounts of people shooting rabid animals remark on how much harder it is to stop them.  When a healthy animal is shot, the normal response is to flee.  This gives the shot time to take effect.  A diseased brain may also reduce the effects of shock that would normally be present.

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