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.
Someone will "SQUEAL" eventually
Wow...new meaning to : "the other white meat"
Not at all a plot lifted from the most recent episode of Copper. Police suspect a small child with a big axe. Really? Retelling stuff seen on TV detective shows is news now? Wait. I'm gonna go back and re-watch last night's Castle!
Sad. If you eat those pigs, you ate human. "Eat mo chikin" Pigs are nasty but are more committed. They gave their life so you can have bacon. A chicken is faithful and will give you eggs daily. Poor guy.
No... the chicken just lays eggs.
Something is very piggy about this story.
SAVE ON FUNERAL EXPENSES NOW! Request to be used as hog feed after death and leave your loved ones a bigger estate.
This is not funny nor related to this specific story: Don't want to know how many people, upon finding and uncautiously reporting strange parts in their hog pens become strange parts in their hog pens.
huh?
I've read this comment three times and all I'm getting from it is a headache.
When your local grocer has a sale on pork chops, ribs and loins and whatever. There is a reason they are on sale.
@Jeff Frank, remember we don't eat pork.
Frank he should have never said that threat to the hog...................they remember.
"Those animals were his life," and his death.
So, if we eat some bacon, are we potentially eating this man?
Bologna is the answer. Made with pork, chicken, beef. Some kids lunchbox will never be the same.
Four legs good, two legs bad.
Sad way to go but think of all the suffering, abuse, killing and eating of pigs humans have done over the years! Pigs are very smart, smarter than dogs and they likely saw enough of their family members taken away to slaughter, so time for revenge!
farmers 100,000,000 Hogs 1
You people are sick! This is a tragic story for this family and my sympathy goes out to them!