I shot this hog Friday night. As I was looking at him through my scope... something didn't look right. After getting him on the ground I realized his ears were missing. Did a person do this or another hog? I'm thinking someone trapped him and removed his ears, but I'm curious what the THF community thinks. Is this common?

In a world full of ugly hogs, this poor guy was special. Just for the record, I don't condone the abuse of wild animals... not even hogs. Just shoot em FCOL! -Fat

more than likely, he had a run in with a hog dog or two. he got lucky and was able to escape. then he ran into you. lol!

My guess would be someone cut his ears off for a bounty then released him. I catch hogs missing tails all the time and think they are cutting them off for the bounty then releasing the hog.

The only other explanation I can think of is a birth defect. We're there scars? Can't really tell from the pic.

Yes, there were some gnarly scars. Dog hypothesis sounds most likely. I didn't think of that one. duh.

-Fat

I shot a one eared pig last year. Just figured the other one had froze off at one point.

My dad is collecting ears right now. He said kimble county has a bounty on them. He has a pile accumulating with the other lease members. They are all from dead pigs though. They would be damned if they let one go

My vote is that pig has meet a Hawg dog or two before it died.

Most likely hog dogs, another boar or the bounty aspect. What county are you in?

Hopkins County

We save the ears from hogs that we shoot for a trapper that helps us out from time to time, he collects the bounty. I would never cut the ears from a live pig, that just ain't right.
I just cant think of any good way to loose your ears. As mentioned; dogs, frozen, fight, birth defect, trapper, they all suck.

I killed a hog one time with no nuts. Someone called it a bar hog. Its tusk were real long and they said he didn't have the fight in him anymore since he had been cut, so he quit grinding them together to sharpen them. Your hog looks pretty weird too. Never seen em so low cut like that, hmmm humans maybe or a hog that has run ins with alot of dogs. Could of been someones training pig for their dogs in a pin at one time. I also killed a hog one time with a short back leg. He (used to) run kinda funny! like HA HA not like the one with no nuts.

Yeah, could have been a dog encounter. I've shot a couple in years past that had torn ears, that is the ears had long, lateral slits as if a dog had gotten hold of the hog but it had gotten away. Seems kinda weird that BOTH ears would be completely missing, though. Never seen that!

See that kind of thing here quite often. Almost certainly the result of the 'Catch Dog' grabbing the ear(s). It is not unusual for folks to use more than one Catch Dog, or have a 'Bay Dog' grab hold too.

The ears get 'crushed' in the jaws/teeth of the dogs resulting in infection and/or loss of blood flow. The tissue then becomes necrotic and falls off. Look closely, next time and if you see evidence of other scarring around the ear and neck, it was dogs.

Ask any rancher that has had dogs grab the ears of cattle, they will recognize it right away.