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.
Wow... all of us find that our only purpose in life is to write a quirky comment. We've all been conditioned to biteback each other and think that we are only "relevant" when we can make a quirky comment, otherwise we are not "with the times." What a pathetic life all of you lead.
I'll go back to what I aim for in life: read news for about 10 minutes, then go study for a certification, or go work out, or hang out with friends, or watch a movie, or spend a night with the family, or start a project, or read a book, or find a way to help a neighbor or someone less fortunate, in essence, SOMETHING PRODUCTIVE. WAKE UP AMERICA AND STOP BEING ZOMBIES.
I read a similar tragic occurrence. A farmer raising beef cows was trampled to death and partially dismembered by a bull he hand raised and treated as a favored pet.
Both articles serve to remind all animal handlers be it farmers handling livestock or animal care givers of all levels, animals are unpredictable and should be at all times handled in a safe and cautious manner.
Ok that was funny. This whole thing is sad but ...
No, it's not foul play; it's porcine play. And Ginny is right: we shouldn't be making jokes, but for some of us, it's how we handle tragic situations. We hit back with humor.
"Honey, does this bacon taste funny to you?"
"Nonsense dear, it's farmer-fresh!"
Poor ole pigs, there's no telling what that mean ole crazy veteran did to provoke them.
Not really, farm pigs are known to eat anything below their noses. They have been seen eating poisonous snakes, rocks, birds, cats, and so on.
The farmer was an older gentleman who may have had a stroke or a heart attack while tending to his animals. This is anything but funny.
These pigs responsible should be slaughtered,perhaps cremated alive and screaming. Then the mineral ashes can be buried.
Pigs may be intelligent,but it is a malific intelligence.
It is time to develop battery meat(meat grown from cells cultures, without skin,hair,brains,guts,bone... just meat !)
What an ignorant comment. These pigs do what animals do....they don't act out of malice. You actually project your human emotions upon a swine, and advocate torturing it because it did what was natural?? I was raised on an Iowa farm and yes we raised hogs, cattle, sheep and chickens. My father once told me, don't ever go into the hog pen if you are bleeding. Simple as that. He was also attacked by a sow once when he came too close to her litter. That, again, is what hogs do and it is only natural. No, he would never have sought "revenge". An ignorant human emotion that you have in spades.
i like to know what my meat has been fed... i dont like chemically engineered food byproducts. god didnot put animals on earth to become useless. every species has a purpose. chemicals will never do for you what natural foods have always done. clean your earwax out "monsanto is NOT the answer".!.
Pigs are very smart and have long memories. Don't step on a piglet in front of mama ... or the rest of the clan, whom are perfectly aware they'll one day be bacon. Nothing to loose.
Old farmer Garner had a farm, EIEIO, and on his farm he had some killer pigs, EIEIO. Bet they never considered that one. 700 lb pigs should be treated with respect.
Stupid pigs. 700 lbs? Really?
I'd say that's plenty big enough. Should've killed it right there and then.
The only thing a 700 lb pig should be treated with is either a gun to the back of its head, or a knife to it's chest.
Oh well, guess their will be 1 less Demcrat to vote for Spleef!!!
Well if we are going to eat them, turn around is fair play, I guess.
Those amimals were his life.... and his death.....
Maybe there was a pig pen nearby, when Hoffa went missing....
Hannible lecter anyone?
I was thinking the same thing! Gruesome!