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This is one of those only in Arkansas stories.  A couple of weeks ago a semi loaded with pigs headed from Nebraska to a Little Rock meatpacker overturned on I430.  Some of the pigs became a feast for local carnivores and buzzards, but most of them were rounded uphog (I wish I had the video to show you!) and shipped off to become a product of Odom’s Tennessee Pride.   Traffic was tied up forever in a very busy stretch of interstate during the worst possible time of day.    I imagine that most of the hog5drivers were ready for bacon, ham  or sausage to be served before it was all cleaned up.
Anyway, what makes this story so funny is the continuing saga.  It seems that NOT ALL of the pigs were successfully rounded up.   One of them showed up days later practicing its dog paddle (pig paddle?) in a private swimming pool somewhere in Pulaski County. hog 10 All 800+ pounds of her that is.  LeAnn Baldy, who found the hoggette enjoying her pool, nicknamed her Wilburette, I suppose after the Green Acres pig,  Wilbur.  Eventually  the sow was turned over to the Humane Society who then found the porker an adoptive farm home somewhere.  Now it seems that Baldy has become concerned that Wilburette may become bacon after all.  (The original meatpacker declined to accept Wilburette since they would no longer be able to use her meat for any of their products due to possible contamination.)  hog11 Well apparently after hearing of the possible porker put down, animal activists across the nation have taken up Wilburette’s cause.  They are demanding to know where she has been taken so that she can be retired to a permanent pig happy place.  The Humane Society, however, will  not divulge the name of the farmer , and the New York Farm Sanctuary director is hot!
Now mind you, I am an animal lover.  But, I was also raised in the South on a semi-farm where our meat was home-slaughtered, smoked, and preserved.  That is basically all I knew until my maternal grandfather, the local plumber turned meatpacker, died when I was in the 8th grade.  Some animals were pets; some were food.  That’s just the way it was…and is.
In Arkansas, we love our pork.  We can all call our swine herds, but more than likely these days, we are calling our Razorback Hogs:
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Some of us are a little strange about the way we do ithog8but we definitely know our “Woo Pig Sooie!” and we’ll enjoy a good pork spare rib any day of the week:)
I just know I’m gonna’ hear about this!  I’ll keep you posted on the future of our porky star.