Samson resident Wade Seago knew something was up outside of his home last week when the family's pet schnauzer, Cruiser, started barking constantly. The Seagos live on 100 acres in the rural south Alabama town. The property and surrounding area is teeming with wildlife so it's not unusual for their dog to bark at deer, raccoons or other wild visitors.

But this was different. As he was about to get up and check on his dog, his daughter began screaming. "I jumped up to see what was going on," Wade explained. "I looked out the back window and saw nothing, so I ran to the front of the house where my daughter was looking out the window. I couldn't believe what I was seeing."

The dog had a huge wild hog bayed in his front yard, about 5 yards off of the front porch. "Cruiser had this huge hog confused with all of the barking and movement," Wade continued. "It was not a good situation."

Seago is an avid deer hunter and runs a taxidermy business in Samson. He was also a prison guard for several years. He told me that hogs are abundant in the area and he has seen them on his property before, but none the size of this one.

Wade was afraid the huge hog would injure or kill the family pet so he grabbed a .38 caliber revolver that he keeps for home defense and went out on the front porch.

"By the time I got in a position to shoot, the hog was about 12 yards away," Wade said. "Cruiser was out of my line to the hog so I fired."

It took three shots to take him down. The giant hog hit the ground near the carport. The next day, Wade took the wild hog to Brooks Peanut Company and weighed it on the drive-thru scales. The hog tipped the scales at 820 pounds and had six inch tushes.

According to the Alabama Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources, feral hogs in Alabama pose a serious threat to native wildlife. High reproductive rates, a lack of natural predators, voracious omnivorous feeding habits, destructive rooting behavior and habitat destruction are just a few reasons why Alabama sportsmen and land managers are encouraged to help control this non-native species. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that feral hogs cause more than $800 million of agricultural damage in the United States annually.

Feral hogs are considered a game animal in Alabama and have no closed season and no bag limits. This means that on private land, hunters can legally hunt hogs every day of the year with no harvest restrictions.

"I didn't think twice about taking down this hog," Wade concluded. "I'd do it again tomorrow."