Comments on: Mega Hog or Mega Hoax?

By: jerrywayne

jerrywayne — Thu, 29 May 2008 16:52:34 +0000

Maybe its a relic hog from prehistory.

By: gkingdano

gkingdano — Thu, 29 May 2008 13:20:00 +0000

Watched it last night–MEGA LAME!!

By: Loren Coleman

Loren Coleman — Thu, 29 May 2008 01:11:47 +0000

Whew, glad to hear it wasn’t an otter in a horse-hide costume made to look like a gorilla, but which turned out to have been killed in a massacre.

Now, back to the show….

By: mantis

mantis — Thu, 29 May 2008 01:02:11 +0000

That is clearly a man in a hog costume.

By: sschaper

sschaper — Wed, 28 May 2008 22:49:15 +0000

If only they could change format and be funded for much more lengthy and in-depth searches, which then could be shown along the manner of National Geographic specials. They made at least one discovery for season one, but it wasn’t entirely definitive: so go back and do it again, and better. Likewise with Orang Pendek, etc., etc.

By: kittenz

kittenz — Wed, 28 May 2008 21:30:34 +0000

I think that the major reason that Hogzilla, the Maine “Mutt”-ant and other such stories become overnight sensations is the almost solely due to the ubiquitous, world-wide nature of the internet. Even worldwide television coverage cannot compare with the internet, which makes stories available 24 hours a day, 27 days a week, usually indefinitely, and with commentary by everyone from experts to whackos.

The internet, and the human tendency to grasp at novelty and then share the experience, are a powerful combination.

In the case of the Maine Mutant, another reason that it initially piqued so much interest is that at first the only photo that was posted, and the one on which the media focused the most attention, was the closeup photo of the dog’s face, which was shot from an angle that caused it to appear greatly foreshortened, and cropped so that none of the body was visble. That photo looked decidedly weird, and by the time the full-body photos were posted, which left no doubt of the animal’s identity as a dog, the legend had already been made. Lots of people conveniently overlooked Loren’s statemnt that the animals was, in his opinion, a dog, because they would rather believe in something that was amazing and different.

By: red_pill_junkie

red_pill_junkie — Wed, 28 May 2008 17:59:35 +0000

It’s obvious these guys are running out of good solid ideas for the shows, and are relying on exploring urban myths. After all, only the hardcore crypto-community is fully aware of the nature of these hoaxs, whereas they could still startle the average viewer.

By: Andrew Minnesota

Andrew Minnesota — Wed, 28 May 2008 17:48:56 +0000

I believe that either Discovery Channel or the National Geographic Channel (I may be wrong about which channel) aired a show a while back just about Hogzilla and touching on how domesticated pigs can go wild if loose for more than a week as well as how quickly they reproduce. In that show they dug up the corpse and did measurements of the animal that is actually in the photo (not the one above, but the one of hog hanging up in the air with the man standing next to it). They figured out what type of hog it was and explained how it reached the size that it did. They answered a lot questions and I’m curious to see if MQ will show us anything new.

By: DARHOP

DARHOP — Wed, 28 May 2008 16:27:27 +0000

Loren said: “I had fun with it, but, as noted many times, from day one, I knew that roadkill was of a dog. There was no riddle there, and it always was more of a mystery to me why it became a media circus mystery.”

I also wondered why all the hype from the roadkill dog. Anybody with 2 halfway good eyes could see that it was a dog. No if ands or buts about it. Nothing from the photo’s I seen could of had me thinking anything else. So why waste the time and $ DNA testing something that is self explanatory?

By: Loren Coleman

Loren Coleman — Wed, 28 May 2008 13:05:41 +0000

To each their own about the “Mutant Canines” episode.

“MonsterQuest” does kick off Season Two tonight with their lead-in repeat from last season being the episode “Mutant Canines.” This program features the so-called Turner Terror or Maine Mutant, made famous by the reporting of the Lewiston Sun-Journal’s Mark LaFlamme. Being the “consultant cryptozoologist” on the case, I was doing interviews with radio stations in South Africa before that original media frenzy was over.
Cameos by Mark and myself are to be found in MQ’s “Mutant Canines” show.

I had fun with it, but, as noted many times, from day one, I knew that roadkill was of a dog. There was no riddle there, and it always was more of a mystery to me why it became a media circus mystery.