Alabama man shoots down 820-pound wild hog in his front yard

When Wade Seago of rural Samson, Ala., heard his dog barking and his daughter screaming, he knew something more than the usual deer or raccoon had wandered into his front yard.

He ran to the front of the house and looked out.

“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” Seago told AL.com.

It was an 820-pound hog with six-inch tusks.

Cruiser, the family schnauzer, had the giant hog at bay in the front yard.

“Cruiser had this huge hog confused with all of the barking and movement,” Seago told AL.com. “It was not a good situation.”

Fearing the hog would hurt Cruiser, Seago grabbed a .38-caliber handgun and fired three shots. The hog collapsed near the carport.

Seago posted a photo of himself with the hog hanging from a tree to Facebook on July 12.

Seago, a taxidermist, says in the post that he plans to mount the hog himself. The photo and post quickly spread across social media, gaining more than 19,000 shares and 1,900 comments by Friday morning.

“Feral hogs in Alabama pose a serious threat to native wildlife,” says the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources on its website. “High reproductive rates, a 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 control this nonnative species. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that feral hogs cause more than $800 million of agricultural damage in the United States annually.”

Seago told The Associated Press he has no regrets about shooting the hog. “I didn’t think twice about taking down this hog,” Seago said. “I’d do it again tomorrow.”

This story was originally published July 21, 2017 at 8:05 AM with the headline "Alabama man shoots down 820-pound wild hog in his front yard."