Authorities in Oregon are investigating how a hog farmer was eaten by his animals.
The remains of Terry Vance Garner, 70, were found in his hog enclosure Wednesday, according to local news reports Monday.
The farmer had gone to feed the hogs, some weighing as much as 700 pounds, about 7:30 a.m., according to a report from CNN affiliate KMTR. After Garner was not seen for several hours, a family member went to check on him and found his dentures in the hog pen. Other remains were found, but the hogs had eaten most of the farmer, according to the report.
The sheriff's department is looking into the death.
"Due to the unusual circumstances, the Sheriff's Office is investigating to determine if foul play may have resulted in the death of Mr. Garner," Coos County District Attorney Paul Frasier told CNN affiliate KVAL.
“For all we know, it was a horrific accident, but it’s so doggone weird that we have to look at all possibilities,” the Eugene Register-Guard quoted Frasier as saying.
Garner could have suffered a heart attack and fallen in the pen, or the hogs could have knocked him off his feet and then eaten him, Frasier told the newspaper.
The state of the remains made determining a cause of death difficult, according to the news reports. They had been sent to the University of Oregon and examined by a forensic anthropologist, the report said.
The farmer's brother, Michael Garner, told the Register-Guard that one of the sows had bitten the farmer last year after he accidentally stepped on a piglet.
“He said he was going to kill it, but when I asked him about it later, he said he had changed his mind,” Garner said.
Garner told the Register-Guard his brother was a Vietnam veteran who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. The farm was "a life-saver," he said.
“Those animals were his life,” Garner told the Register-Guard.
hey soccer mom – what do you think a decent soccer ball is made of? how about your soccer spikes? get a life girl.
Point of fact; there are many horrific farming stories such as these. I grew up on a Central MN farm. Our neighbors had a large operation which used a large slurry pit. A mechanical failure caused a first brother to go in to try to repair it. After passing out from the methane (natural by product), a second went in to rescue him; suffering the same fate, and a third also. The father found the 3 teanagers hours later when he returned home and to a running tractor and no one around.
I love the smell of bacon in the morning: It smells like breakfast. Or lunch, BLT anyone?
mmmmm...farmer fed bacon...super-size me!
'Foul' play... My favorite line.
I must disagree, Phil. The best line is the last one.
Maybe it was fowl play? Could he have died from a bird attack first? >:)
If we eat the hogs. Is that cannibalism ?.
I'll be skipping pork products for the next year... just in case
Are wolves, coyotes, cougars, bears and other predators any kinder in killing their prey than we are? Heck we feed them well, talk nice to them, and end their lives quickly. We don't chase our prey around and kill them one bite at a time like the wild animals do. A farm animal raised to be food is much better off than his wild cousins. If we don't kill cows, pigs, chickens, and sheep, the wild animals will. Or diseases. Or starvation. None of those options are very kind.
"If we don't kill cows, pigs, chickens, and sheep, the wild animals will. Or diseases. Or starvation. None of those options are very kind."
The only reason there are so many of these guys on the planet is because they are produced for diet. If you don't eat meat and adopt a plant-based diet, the number of cows, pigs, chickens, and sheep would plummet drastically, because there is no reason to factory farm them anymore. And in the end, it would be a hell of a lot kinder to animals to adopt a plant-based diet. Most meat eaters in the U.S. get their meat from a grocery store, not a small farm. There is no kindness in the factories these animals are in.
Squeezebox-
I hope you read "just a human's" response. Humans could live perfectly well WITHOUT abusing/killing/eating animals.
man eats pig; pig eats man.........(que music) the circle of life. lmfao
truly i feel bad for the old gentleman if he was alive while the pigs went after him, that would be a horrible way to die.
I will not be eating any pork either!
Could have had a heart attack, hit the ground, and then.......well......you know....
Ba deet, ba deet, that's all folks!
Well, unless these hogs were pets, I reallly don't see these hogs being slaughtered for food now.
The farm and the big were " a life-saver." LOL Really?
Yea, don't eat any pork from that farm. All those animals need to be put down.