Deer Killed By Hog/s

another reason to hate em

Hard to believe a hog could and would catch/kill a healthy adult deer. With their sense of smell, I have no doubt they could find a young fawn hiding in the brush and being omnivores, will readily eat meat if they can find it. Down on the farm we used to feed the hogs dead calves all the time. Was the easiest way to get rid of them. Grandpa used to warn us kids not to fall into the pig pen or we would be dead before we hit the ground......

Any chance they found a deer that had been injured and/or died previously?

buck460XVR said:

Grandpa used to warn us kids not to fall into the pig pen or we would be dead before we hit the ground.....

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We were told the same thing. Always found it amusing/disgusting when the hogs would eat the leftover pork chops.

Hog are very dangerous, Don't get them mad. Don't approach a female hog with his younglings without a plan.

Broccolis said:

Don't approach a female hog with his younglings without a plan.

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Yep....those gender neutral hogs are an ornery bunch!

When I was a young boy, I watched one of our big sows snap up a chicken that decided too get to close, gone in one bite.

Killed versus scavenged can be very difficult to ascertain if all you find are the remains on the ground. As noted above, hogs will definitely scavenge other animals that are dead. I, too, have witnessed them feeding on a dead cow. They will even cannibalize their own that are dead. They will kill small animals if they can catch them.

Not long ago, I was a PI. A family had several dogs they would keep out in a fenced pen every so often. Usually when guests were visiting. On one such occasion, the owners went to let the dogs out in the morning and they were nowhere to be seen. There was a large hole under the fence of the pen and there was an obvious struggle. I was a friend of a friend of a friend of my wife in this instance so I did not know these people. They had called the police as they suspected someone had stolen their dogs. Their dogs were purebred Yorkshire Terriers so that theory fit at least a little bit.

In the fastest occurrence ever of being able to contact the friend of a friend of a friend's husband, they wanted a second opinion from me because I was a PI and a little bit "neck" as my wife articulated to me during the investigation. I arrived a few hours after the police left. I came to the same conclusion as the cops. (Who apparently were sufficiently "neck" to identify hog tracks). The dogs had been attacked by feral hogs and were most likely being digested in them at the current time.

Fast forward a few days later and something similar happened to another family a mile away. They happened to know the first family and once again wanted me to give my opinion on yet another dognapping. They had not called the cops because they thought it must be hogs since their friends had that happen a few days ago. A bunch of hungry rogue hogs I guess. Well I showed up. Even though I am a Michigander, I assimilate quite well into southern culture and I know alligator tracks when I see them. I contacted the local game warden who contacted the local critter gitter who apparently was "neck" enough to track the alligator back to its pond which was only a hundred or so yards away and killed it. They did a necropsy and found the dog's collar in the stomach of that gator.

Sometimes I miss being a PI.

Howland937 said:

Always found it amusing/disgusting when the hogs would eat the leftover pork chops.

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Chickens love scrambled eggs..,

If you think Nature is kind or gentle or think that hogs aren't tough as heck, look at this video taken last week near Gatlinburg, Tenn.

alsaqr said:

There is more than remains on the ground. About three weeks previous to finding the remains i found the spot where the attack took place: There were very large hog tracks, a deer leg and deer hair.

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Okay, maybe I am missing something here. For comparison, I find vulture tracks and feathers along with hog carcass parts in fields where I have left downed hogs that I shot. The vultures did not kill the hogs, but I did. However, the evidence left behind is very similar to what is described as a hog having killed a deer. You have hog tracks and deer carcass parts. So what is the evidence of the attack and kill of the deer by the hog?

Patocazador said:

If you think Nature is kind or gentle or think that hogs aren't tough as heck, look at this video taken last week near Gatlinburg, Tenn.

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While most folks that view this video have no problem with the bear killing a wild hog, odds are if it was someone's dog or their horse, the poor bear(who doesn't know the difference) would be hunted down and killed for depredation.

alsaqr said:

There is more than remains on the ground. About three weeks previous to finding the remains i found the spot where the attack took place: There were very large hog tracks, a deer leg and deer hair.

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Double Naught Spy said:

So what is the evidence of the attack and kill of the deer by the hog?

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^^^I am in the same boat as DNS. I've come across numerous deer carcasses/remains surrounded by wolf and bear tracks. Many times it's after the gun deer season or in the Spring after winter has taken a toll. I have also come across "kill" sites where there were as many deer tracks on the ground as there was those of their predator. Without signs of a struggle, it's hard to claim the animal was killed by what ate it. It's also impossible, even with signs of a struggle, that the prey was not already injured or in a bad way. Around here, it's a common sight to see a Eagle feeding, perched on top a deer carcass along side the road. While I could see a Eagle taking a fawn, I can't see it taking down a full grown healthy deer. I'm guessing the majority are deer killed/dying by other means, being scavenged. Same goes for hogs. JMHO tho.

In my youth on the farm a family member ran a small slaughter house in another county. The kill areas hanging bleeding area had floor drains the lead to a pig trough. Offal was disposed of the same way. 40’s thru 50’s so little regulation was about. Probably not legal to day.
Pigs, bears and humans have pretty much the same eating requirements.