It seems that the massive animal began life at the Blissitt home when Phil brought home the six week old piglet as a Christmas gift for his wife Rhonda in December 2004. He was named Fred and recently was sold along with all the rest of the pigs they had on their farm.
"I just wanted the truth to be told. That wasn't a wild pig," Rhonda said
The 15 hogs the Blissitt's owned were sold for slaughter but no one wanted to buy Fred because he was too large for slaughter or to be used for breeding. He was sold instead to the Lost Creek Plantation just four days before he was "hunted" and shot within the 150 acre fenced area.
Jamison's father, Mike Stone who was along with him for the hunt, said in an interview with the Associated Press that he was under the impression that the hog was wild and not farm raised. The Alabama Department of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries, who contacted Stone, determined that no laws were violated in the hunt and that it wasn't unusual for hunting preserves to purchase farm raised hogs and those hogs are then considered feral once they have been released.
The news reports and photos gave me as well as many others I am sure, the distinct impression of a three hour hunt in the not so friendly woods to track down and finally bring down the wounded and possibly dangerous animal. The "hoax" lies within the fact that when Jamison and his father drove through the gate of the Lost Creek Plantation, they knew they were going to pay for a kill. Fred was a massive hog and according to his former owner, had long outgrow his "cute" family pet status and needed to be killed but that doesn't change the fact that four days before his death, he was farm fed. The Stone's knew very well that they were not hunting a huge, elusive animal in the wild... they paid for a canned kill.
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