Animal Planet's "Invasion," episode "Invasion of the Mutant Pigs"

[Brian Shaffer]

Okay, this aired earlier this year and I missed it. I set Tivo to record it and it finally caught an episode. What a huge disappointment. The hype is so overblown to include outright blatant lies. I do like how they included a "team" to come to Texas to come help with the problem, as if the 3 folks of the "team" were going to stay any appreciable time to help.

They keep referring to the feral hogs as "mutants" having "razor sharp teeth" and that anybody and everybody is in danger by pigs at any time. They are all potential killers, apparently.

"Males have also developed a shield of bone up to 2" thick around their shoulders which offers some protection from a bullet."

I have to admit that they did a cool experiment. They put a hog into a small penned area to look at the amount of damage it would do in one night. Neat. Not only did the hog root up part of the area, but apparently had the ability to generate water where there was none before, creating a pool of water in the enclosure. In other words, off camera they ran a lot of water to encourage the hog to dig and wallow.

Of course they hyped pigs spreading disease. All of the diseases carried by pigs are carried by normal livestock and indigenous species already.

At one point, they showed a great sunset behind a cactus noting that "tonight is the culmination of a mission." Interesting. The cactus was a saguaro cactus. These don't occur in Texas. They occur in Arizona.

So much more was wrong with the show, but I will stop. No doubt, hogs are bad, but I don't see where lies need to be created to portray them that way. They aren't mutants. They don't have razor sharp teeth. They don't attack people with any regularity without people first attacking them. Holy moly great googledy moogledy.

 

[histopicker]

make the public afraid and they will watch more of your shows?

 

[TEXASLAWMAN]

Reality TV = very little reality.

 

[Brian Shaffer]

Yeah, I was hoping it was a documentary, but it was more of mocumentary.

 

[EGarza04]

It is sad how often this happens with TV shows. Now half of their viewers probably believe all the lies that were spread on the show.

 

[histopicker]

It is sad how often this happens with TV shows. Now half of their viewers probably believe all the lies that were spread on the show.

I believe them all, the media always portrays the truth. All of it, All of the time!
Don't they?

 

[Guess]

the problem is they very rarely consult with true experts. In just the few days I've been here I can tell you there are far more people here that would qualify than what I've seen on TV.

Last week I gave a seminar with Dr. dale Rollins. He is better known as a quail expert but he is very informative on hogs and gives a good seminar for a college professor. Most of them are very dry. He is common folk with a twist!

 

[Brian Shaffer]

Even many of the experts and expert sources say some weird things ranging from population growth, to behavior to anatomical features. While this program noted hog armor as bone, which it is not, I have noticed several sources/people including TPWD stating that a hog's shield is scar tissue (often attributed by folks to be from fighting), which it is not. I am not sure who the true experts are, or how much the true experts diverge from their areas of expertise to espouse information they believe to be factual, but don't have any true knowledge of, but yet are believed as they are "experts"...just not for all that they state.

 

[Aspp]

Ehh, I could live with the razor sharp teath part, they use those cutter to good effect. I have sewn up dogs that looked like they got in a knife fight, and lost badly.
The rest of it is the reason I dont have TV. I watch my cows, look for yotes, work, and read. More entertaining and you actually learn from it. This internet thing is my form of "reality tv", and almost too much sometimes.

 

[Guess]

you are correct. The shield is formed naturally, not from fighting. I raised a boar from 2 weeks of age that was never with another hog till he was 3 years old. You could very clearly see his shield by that age. The guestimates on population expansion, is ridiculous! There is no way to determine the number of hogs we have. You can estimate to some extent the rate at which 2 hogs can reproduce. But most of the studies I've seen on this are way off base!! MOST sows only have 1 litter a year, some have two. I averaged it out in my pens all of my sows together averaged 3 litters every 2 years. The litters were generally small even under ideal conditions. I think the largest litter we ever had was 7. I think the large litter misconception comes from people seeing sows with many piglets that are not theirs. We found a small sounder made up of 5 sows and 18 piglets. We took out all but 1 sow before the pigs were ready to wean. The 1 sow fed all of them! they would switch out reluctanlty. We killed that last sow to see how they would do without any mothers{adults}. There are still 16 of them, they have not moved and we are going to start killing them soon befoer they do relocate.

 

[Aspp]

Hogs have a gestation period of 114days, so at most its 3 litters a year, but realisticly its a litter every 140-160 days. Around here litters are usually 6-9 piglets, but half will be eatten by preditors or accidently killed by the sow or other sounder mates (they get laid on in colder wether and are smothered).

 

[Guess]

I have seen very little predation by anything around here. I've watched many sounders and Maternal groups. Very little to no loss to predation. In fact the only predation I seen with my own eyes was by a boar. I heard hogs fighting and walked up on a sow giving birth and a boar eating them as soon as they hit the ground. He died! We have had three seperate pens of hogs at two different locations over the years. It was 50/50 half gave birth to 2 litters every 3 years and half gave birth only once a year. One sow is 5 years old and for the first time gave birth to two litters. One in feb. which has been the same since she was old enough to give birth. This year however she gave birth the second time in July. The only noticable difference that I can think of is that we've had an unusually mild summer this year. Nothing else has changed.
Another note;
In our area we have three peak birthing seasons feb, june, and oct. With feb and oct being the highest. Don't get me wrong I see litters all months of the year. However I see more during the months mentioned.

 

[TEXASLAWMAN]

the problem is they very rarely consult with true experts. In just the few days I've been here I can tell you there are far more people here that would qualify than what I've seen on TV.

Last week I gave a seminar with Dr. dale Rollins. He is better known as a quail expert but he is very informative on hogs and gives a good seminar for a college professor. Most of them are very dry. He is common folk with a twist!

Then also hire experts but then they force them into contracts that say only stick to the script, no shooting, no this, no that.

 

[MD1005]

I watched 2 minutes of it and turned it off. The sad thing is people believe it and that's the information that spreads.
It's just like how they portray sharks. There is so much unfounded fear and ignorance created.

 

[histopicker]

I know from experience that fear is a great selling point for those offering "caned hunts" for hogs on exotic game ranches. It also allows for better client control. If they will only hunt from a blind because of fear, you can easily video their shots, sell them a copy for 50 bucks, and charge them for any hits made on a hog whether they kill it or not. I am not a proponent of this, just stating the facts.(have a friend who managed an exotic ranch). Sensationalism sells.

 

[Guess]

I would like to point out. I do not have cable or dish. SO I don't watch any hunting shows except, My son buys the Bone collectors when they come out on DVD. I have an antenna!

Lawman
we had a TV show call us about making a hog show. I nearly did it, but they wanted us to fight, hunt with dogs and so on. They didn't want us to to our thing the way we really do. WHich in itself is dramatic enough with 5 females and 2 males!

 

[histopicker]

Would that have been "Hogs Gone Wild"? Turning that one down would be doing yourself a favor. Just thinkin.

 

[Guess]

they didn't tell me the name, Just told me what other shows they did. I promise you would know what those were. can neither dey or confirm the names, but one was on a sea going vesels and one was truck driving{both in extreme conditons}. I think they have a few others. Or at least that is what they pitched to me. As stated I don't watch much TV.

would have been a desperately needed income, but there are some things I can't bring myself to do for money. Maybe someday we'll have our own show, but it will be closer to my own terms. I promise you this It will be God, family,friends and hunting. The real deal !