Boy shoots "Monster Pig"

The huge hog known as "Monster Pig" after being killed by an 11-year-old boy got another name: Fred.

Far from wild, the 1,000-pound (453.6-kilogram) pig had been raised on an Alabama farm and was sold to the Lost Creek Plantation just four days before it was shot there in a 150-acre (60.7-hectare) fenced area, the animal's former owner said.

Phil Blissitt told The Anniston Star newspaper in a story Friday that he bought the 6-week-old pig in 2004 as a Christmas gift for his wife, Rhonda, and that they sold it after deciding to get rid of all their pigs.

"I just wanted the truth to be told. That wasn't a wild pig," Rhonda Blissitt said.

Jamison Stone shot the huge hog during what he and his father described as a three-hour chase. They said it was 9 feet (2.7 meters) long.

"We were told that it was a feral hog," Mike Stone told the Star, "and we hunted it on the pretense that it was a feral hog."

Telephone messages left Friday with Eddy Borden, the owner of Lost Creek Plantation, were not immediately returned.

The Blissitts said they did not know the hog was Fred until they were contacted by a game warden for the Alabama Department of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries. The agency determined that no laws were violated in the hunt.

Phil Blissitt said he became irritated when he learned that some thought the photo of Fred was doctored.

"That was a big hog," he said.