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.
Sounds a bit like Animal Farm to me!
Domestic hogs can be very aggressive. Especially sows with young. Growing up, we used to watch our hog farmer grandpa "ring" the hogs. A steel ring was clamped into the hogs snout. This kept them from most aggressive behavior. One particular female (the largest at about 800 lbs) was never allowed near the remaining herd due to aggression. I'm sure it did not take long for the hogs to consume the farmer.
Remember the scene from one of the Hannibal Lecter movies???? This is so creepy!!!
Condolances to the family.
Squeeze box- yes, wilder animals are kinder in the way they kill for food because they have no choice; most of us have plenty of choices and we're not true carnivores. The animals you speak of don't systematically torture other beings for profit, like we do. The differences go on and on. My only wish is that those who cannot stop eating animals at least cut down and shop consciously – this way, factory farming can come to an end. Less supply, less demand. It's very ignorant to think that there's anything close to okay with the way animals are farmed. It's a travesty. There are some decent farmers who give animals respect before they're killed but unfortunately, they're the overwhelming minority.
Even though I have not eaten meat (any kind) for over 20 years, I personally have NO trouble with the slaughter of pigs for food. Pigs convert almost anything to usable protein. They re-cycle garbage very efficiently.
Pigs for food: It's their destiny.
sanjosemike
Good thing I no longer eat pork products!
Just a point of interest, in the golden years of the Mob they used Pig farms to get rid of evidence just this way.....
The Revenge of the Hogs!
Can we get a pig pen at Capitol Hill and have congress feed the pigs.
Wow, they really pigged out.
Sometimes you eat the pig, and sometimes the pig eats you.
Then one day you will eat a hog that had eaten a man. Where does the food chain begin and end here. oops man eats man in a hog meat.
It's called Karma. he who eats pig, gets eaten in the future. Man and pig are now united as one.
Where's Brick Top?
You wonder why pork is not kosher? Hogs will eat anything – including each other.