In the quiet, rural town of Samson, Alabama, one late summer night in 2017 turned into a scene out of a horror movie for local resident Wade Seago. What started as an ordinary evening on his 100-acre property quickly spiraled into an unforgettable, adrenaline-fueled encounter with a wild beast that left even seasoned hunters speechless.
The first signs of trouble came from the family dog, Cruiser, a schnauzer who began barking uncontrollably outside the house. Living in the Alabama countryside, Wade and his family were used to wildlife—deer, raccoons, even the occasional fox. But nothing could have prepared them for what they were about to face.
“I thought it was just another deer passing by,” Wade recalled in an interview with AL.com. But then his daughter screamed.
“I jumped up to see what was going on,” he said. “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.”
Standing just five yards away from their front porch was a massive feral hog, its tusks glinting in the light, each about six inches long. At first glance, Wade didn’t even think it was real—it was that enormous. The hog dwarfed anything he’d seen before, and it was moving closer.
Reacting instinctively, Wade dashed back inside and grabbed his .38 caliber revolver. The safety of his dog—and his family—was his only concern. “By the time I got in a position to shoot, the hog was about 12 yards away,” he said. “Cruiser was out of my line to the hog, so I fired.”
Wade fired three times. The hog collapsed. It was only afterward, when the chaos subsided, that he had time to fully process what had just happened.
“I didn’t really have time to think about it,” he told the BBC. “I was confronted by an animal threatening my dog that looked like something out of a horror film.”
What Wade had taken down wasn’t just any wild animal—it was a monster. The next morning, he loaded the animal and brought it to Brooks Peanut Company to be weighed. The scale stopped at a jaw-dropping 820 pounds.
Though Wade owns a taxidermy shop and is no stranger to hunting, he had never seen anything close to this in size or scale. “I didn’t think twice about taking down this hog,” he said. “I’d do it again tomorrow.”
In Alabama, where feral hogs have become a serious problem, Wade’s reaction was not just justifiable—it was practically expected. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, wild hogs cause over $800 million in agricultural damage annually. The animals reproduce rapidly, have almost no natural predators, and destroy everything from farmland to delicate ecosystems.
State law allows landowners to kill feral hogs without limit, recognizing the threat they pose to both agriculture and native wildlife. The species is considered invasive, and their population is booming in southern states like Alabama, Georgia, and Texas.
Wade made the decision to preserve the hog’s head and shoulders for display at his shop—a trophy of an unbelievable encounter. But the meat? “It’s so humid down here it had to hang all night,” he said. “I wouldn’t trust the meat.”
Years later, images from that night are still circulating online. One particularly striking photo shows the hog hanging from a tree, dwarfing Wade, who stands proudly beside it. The photo has become something of a legend in the South—proof of just how wild life can be in the backwoods of Alabama.
What began as a family’s peaceful evening turned into a life-or-death confrontation on the front lawn. And while some may question Wade’s decision, few who see the size of the animal would have hesitated.
In Wade’s own words: “No regrets.”
Would you have done the same?