The feral hogs fill a similarly metaphoric role, but for citizen-level debate—both sides of it. Since helicopter squadrons of rifle-toting hunters are not practical for the rumbling mass of feral hogs, Texas also tried to introduce pesticide to trigger a “hog apocalypse,” as the agricultural commissioner put it. It all started in a horrible place: on Saturday, there were two back to back mass shootings. The cost: $1.5 billion a year in damage and control spending, the USDA said in 2014. If you're in a group where opinions on gun control are mixed, and the discussion stays civil, it's something like "People are dying" versus "There are actual use cases for guns." A helicopter hog-hunting trip is a popular Texas pastime that can set you back a few grand per outing. 30-50 Feral Hogs. All rights reserved. Yet, the internet backlash didn't stop GOP leaders, including Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell and President Trump, from tweeting that they'd be sending thoughts and prayers to the people of Texas and Ohio just this week. Mass shootings have killed 253 US residents this year alone. His question swiftly went viral and has inspired countless memes.But, if the image of 30-50 wild pigs roaming around a backyard seems surreal to you, it … Besides, according to the US Department of Agriculture, shooting into a large group of swine is not recommended, since it's liable to send them stampeding in every direction, causing further damage. Ad Choices, How ‘30-50 Feral Hogs’ Became the New ‘Thoughts and Prayers’. The largest bird in North America was nearly wiped out. How ‘30-50 Feral Hogs’ Became the New ‘Thoughts and Prayers’ The pugnacious-porcine meme is the latest example of people on social media embracing absurdity to cope with intense sadness. In response to the unexpected absurdity of the feral hog question, the internet’s meme machine went into overdrive. Search The result: about 6 million invasive hogs causing millions of dollars of crop damage and driving native species to extinction, along with occasionally scaring the bejeezus out of people. Feral hogs are invasive species that were brought to North America from Europe by Spanish conquistadors, and ever since, they have multiplied across the country. https://twitter.com/rat_liker/status/1158478124255834112, https://twitter.com/kamilumin/status/1158437382322053126, https://twitter.com/videodante/status/1158449088469168132, https://twitter.com/LucyXIV/status/1158463587972632576, https://twitter.com/ditzkoff/status/1158502643003744256, https://twitter.com/erik_kaars/status/1158641283155578882, Things not sounding right? So is McNabb so off the mark? Listen on Post Reports: ‘30-50 feral hogs’ is an understatement. Feral hogs feature tough hides, fast legs, and the intelligence of, well, pigs, which are far craftier than the typical deer or duck or other … The pugnacious-porcine meme is the latest example of people on social media embracing absurdity to cope with intense sadness. They move in large groups called sounders. But people should still use caution, especially around wounded pigs, officials said. Feral hogs are real problem for much of the United States. What does “30-50 feral hogs” even mean? Still, it's important to have that perspective while out there among the 30 to 50 million feral hog jokes. The idea that this man was fighting off upwards of 30 hogs every time his kids went outdoors sent Twitter into a meme frenzy, and just about everyone had a Feral Hog Tweet™. Another problem: Hogs are built to last. WIRED combs the web for data about Daisy Ridley and presents all the information to her. Feral hogs have killed just four people in United States history, and the most recent attack was over 30 years ago. That has led to cottage industries of groups that exterminate the animals in all kinds of ways — including with firearms, though the hogs’ thick hides can help shield them from rounds fired from many AR-15-style rifles. Team Gun Rights is used to those use cases being dismissed out of hand. “Their razor sharp tusks combined with their lightning speed can cause serious injury.”. Feral hogs, or Sus scrofa, are a non-native species introduced to the United States in the 16 th century by explorers, according to the Department of Agriculture. It's a lucrative business. After a Twitter user arguing against gun control tweeted about "30-50 feral hogs" attacking his kids, the site exploded with memes, parodies, … Let's not get falsely equivalent here: A plague of swine is not a reason to dispense with gun control regula­tions, nor is it justification for owning an assault rifle. Yet, millions of marauding wild pigs have invaded large swaths of the southern United States, eviscerating crops, gobbling up endangered sea turtles and trampling archaeological sites in a rampage showing no signs of letting up. Musical Hog Memes It's actually impressive how many songs can easily accommodate the words "30–50 feral hogs" being shoehorned into their lyrics. Whatever it was, McNabb's innocent query captured the imagination of the general public, and people flooded Twitter with jokes and memes about feral hogs. Feral hogs are considered a public nuisance in the state, not regulated wildlife, so private landowners can hunt or trap them at will. Feral hogs — resilient in the face of helicopter assaults, threats of mass poisoning and elaborate traps — have stumbled into the national debate over the availability of assault-style rifles. One instance in Ohio met McNabb’s threshold — 30 caught in a single trap. She was feeding the stray cats that kept her company. The breakthroughs and innovations that we uncover lead to new ways of thinking, new connections, and new industries. It is the essential source of information and ideas that make sense of a world in constant transformation. 30-50 feral hogs. As devastated citizens and celebrities took to social media to express heartbreak and frustration over America's gun control laws and with legislators who put politics ahead of public safety, musician Jason Isbell tweeted the following: "If you're on here arguing the definition of 'assault weapon' today, you are part of the problem. Here’s how it fought its way back. They've invaded the lyrics of songs from " Do Re Mi" to "Milkshake." "Thoughts and prayers" has been festering in the zeitgeist since at least 2012, in the wake of the Aurora movie theater shooting, but reached its pinnacle last year after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting, when meme-makers started putting the phrase on the side of dump trucks to show its hollowness. Needless to say, the 30-50 feral hog memes are pure gold. But Texas Parks and Wildlife has warned: if you’re going to hunt wild pigs to protect land or for sport, an AR-15-type of firearm may not be enough to pierce its tough hide. In one video with a million views, a shooter fires at hogs with a semiautomatic shotgun, occasionally at nearly point-blank range, to the soundtrack of Creedence Clearwater Revival. To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. "Legit question for rural Americans," Arkansas dad William McNabb tweeted. Think 30-50 feral hogs is a joke? A detailed hypothetical justifying the use of assault weapons has become a meme about, well, feral hogs. The 100- to 400-pound pigs have been spreading across the country since they were introduced by Spanish explorers in the 1500s. -- feral hogs. “Bowhunting, muzzleloading, and handguns are also popular among sportsmen to hunt feral hogs,” the agency said. But that plan had setbacks after 200 birds were found dead. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (updated as of 1/1/21) and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement (updated as of 1/1/21) and Your California Privacy Rights. They produce large litters that replace pigs killed en masse and use their stout tusks to defend themselves against cougars. First, here’s some background on the meme. In the United States, debate about gun control following a mass shooting has taken on the tone of a Samuel Beckett play, and so have the memes about it. By signing up you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, General assignment reporter covering national and breaking news. Sport hunters there can legally rent a helicopter jump seat and shoot fleeing hogs. The reigning absurdist mass-shooting-response meme has been "thoughts and prayers," which politicians—many of whom don't support stricter gun laws—offer as a wan attempt at comforting their constituents. Explaining the Twitter meme that involves 30-50 feral hogs running into a yard for 3-5 minutes while your small children play. Even “Simpsons” writer Bill Oakley created a mock episode script title “Bart Gets 30-50 Feral Hogs.”. Like a great Marvel superhero, this phrase has an origin story. What happens when you Google her name? But when it comes to reaching a solution to end gun violence, they’re a reminder of a big divide. The feral hogs have all the drama and pandemonium of a perfectly American "I survived" story, and yet, it all exists as a hypothetical on social media. Twitter users became besotted with its imagery, and seemingly within three to five minutes, sent their feral hog jokes running across timelines everywhere. The feral hogs, all 30 to 50 of them, are just the kind of meme Twitterati are wont to latch onto—one so absurd that it's hilarious, and so hilarious that you'll almost forget it's macabre as hell. © 2021 Condé Nast. (I have encountered one such hog, and it was like coming across a sabertooth mastiff.). Wired may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. Of course, that has produced its own “Apocalypse Now” rip-off. WIRED is where tomorrow is realized. “How do I kill the 30-50 feral hogs that run into my yard within 3-5 mins while my small kids play?”, McNabb’s response, and his back-and-forth with Isbell, paralyzed social media with countless memes that poked fun at the idea of semiautomatic rifles as a vital tool in wild pig home defense. You know what an assault weapon is, and you know you don't need one. But in many parts of the country, including Virginia, feral hogs have posed a huge threat to natural habitats and endangered plants and animals, according to DGIF. Everyone's just reading lines from the script and waiting. But on Monday, as the meme took of — pigs canfly — Twitter seemed less fixated on the real-life details of McNabb’s hog problem than the content of his original tweet, numbers and all. And for the record, the state is seeing sounders of 20 or less, but “there’s not a typical group size,” Stephens said. The Meaning Behind the #UnwantedIvanka Meme, How to Reduce Gun Violence: Ask Some Scientists, Daisy Ridley Explores Her Impact on the Internet. But since the 1990s, sport hunters have encouraged the populations of their favored prey. The meme was born after one user claimed that Americans needed access to assault rifles for defense against herds of feral hogs roaming the countryside. The 30-50 feral hogs meme is still going strong. On Sunday, in the wake of two mass shootings, musician Jason Isbell questioned the necessity of ordinary Americans to own an “assault weapon,” touching on the pedantic and intricate ways gun-rights advocates define their wares. The pigs will win, of course. It's hard to find consensus when one person's absurdist image is another person's backyard. They’re a “threat” to the state, says Keith Stephens, a spokesman for the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission, leaving a trail of diseases and parasites. They've inspired strange hypothetical chat rooms and porcine updates to classic pieces of writing. But *I* would shoot 30-50 feral hogs And *I* would shoot 30-50 more Millions more are rampaging across the U.S. Enter hog-beset citizen Wiliam McNabb. ", The tweet quickly racked up likes, retweets, and responses—but one comment stood out over all the rest. It was a baby deer he let his dog kill. An 8-bit game was quickly developed. (My favorite: "For sale/30-50 feral hogs/Never shot.") Picture: Twitter @WillieMcNabb The tweet immediately captured the imagination of many on Twitter who were then forced to imagine 30-50 feral hogs running into a yard within a 3-5 minute time window in order to attack children. Feral hogs are trending on Twitter after a man said he needed an assault weapon to kill feral hogs that run through his yard. "How do I kill the 30-50 feral hogs that run into my yard within 3-5 mins while my small kids play?". The feral pig memes might be good for some dark humor. There are now 6 million of them in at least 39 states, and they are “rapidly expanding,” according to the Agriculture Department. He bragged about his ‘big game’ hunt on Instagram. READ MORE: The best memes of 2019 (so far) 30-50 feral hogs. For advocates of gun control, it's a meaningless platitude that is a poor substitute for legislative action. Feral hogs — resilient in the face of helicopter assaults, threats of mass poisoning and elaborate traps — have stumbled into the national debate over the availability of assault-style rifles. Telling people "I don't have kids" “Hogs are tough, fierce, and hardy beasts,” Duke University professor Gabriel Rosenberg wrote, and are helped by a general lack of natural predators and the ability to withstand different climates. The most important news stories of the day, curated by Post editors and delivered every morning. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. Maybe it was simply the phrase "feral hogs." One of our analysts goes hog wild interpreting the bizarre "feral hogs" meme. What's her most popular video on YouTube? 30-50 Feral Hogs Memes The Brief: A comment about the possibility of needing an assault rifle to defend small children against 30-50 feral hogs has temporarily taken over Twitter in a viral meme. To some, especially in rural Texas or neighboring states like Arkansas, McNabb is raising a reasonable safety concern and being roasted for it. Jevtic/Getty and William McNabb/Twitter The “30-50 feral hogs” meme is proof the internet can sometimes be pretty amazing. Maybe it was the assumption that all rural Americans regularly have to open fire on large groups of hogs invading their property. A state task force assembled to combat the problem agreed trapping them is the most effective strategy, he said, although pigs are clever and known to evade traps. But more on that in a second. A detailed hypothetical justifying the use of assault weapons has become a meme. Twitter is supplying the memes. But are they a threat to people, as McNabb suggested? Team Gun Control is used to those use cases being edge cases. Now the 79-year-old is going to jail. Feral Hogs refers to a hypothetical argument made on Twitter defending the ownership of assault rifles which posited that such weaponry would be necessary to combat the "30-50 feral hogs that run into my yard within 3-5 mins while my small kids play." Earlier this week, a Tweet concerning feral hogs went viral in the midst of a contentious debate over gun control. It's one of those sentences that gets stranger with each syllable. “Legit question for rural Americans,” responded William McNabb, a Twitter user whose bio says he lives in southern Arkansas. Singer-songwriter Jason Isbell became the catalyst of a new meme on Sunday centered around -- what else? 30-50 Feral Hogs, refers to a hypothetical argument made on Twitter defending the ownership of assault rifles which posited that such weaponry would be necessary to combat the "30-50 feral hogs that run into my yard within 3-5 mins while my small kids play." “In a natural state, feral hogs will prefer to run and escape danger and are not considered dangerous,” Texas game officials said. It is tough to know. Thirty to 50 unkillable feral hogs may or may not be terrorizing one Arkansas man's backyard, but they've definitely infiltrated Twitter. “The best rifle calibers to use should be a .243 or greater to prevent wounding and loss of the animal,” the agency said, referring to a bullet used for hunting, which packs more of a punch than a typical .223 round associated with many AR-15-style rifles — though some rifles are chambered in heavier and more lethal sizes more appropriate for hogs. What's the first picture of Daisy to appear on Getty Images? To a (coastal) city slicker, needing to defend your family against feral hogs seems fantastical and worthy of spoofing, and, admittedly, McNabb's hog count seems high. It started on Sunday, while the United States was reeling from back-to-back tragedies: mass shootings in both El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, which together accounted for at least 31 deaths. How, exactly, did we get to a nationwide discussion and meme explosion about feral hogs and the oddly specific range of 30 to 50 of them? Feral pigs are clearly dangerous to wildlife and agriculture. Check out our favorite. That leaves other methods, including elaborate camera-enabled traps and night hunts using infrared scopes. The point is that there is no point. Texas produced a uniquely Texan solution: Shoot them from low-flying helicopters. Dungeons & Dragons are converting an Internet meme into the perfect D&D encounter. That leaves game officials, farmers and private industry to contend with the expanding pig crisis. They always have. What kind of impact has "Ophelia" star Daisy Ridley had on the internet? This is probably because the 30-50 feral hogs are distracting us from some pretty dark times and in a deliciously ridiculous way. He could not be reached for comment, but in tweets defending his original message, he said hogs have been a persistent issue at home in Arkansas. In the wake of two horrific mass shootings in one weekend, the last week or so has been full of debate about stronger gun laws by some and vigorous defense of the second amendment by others, including protecting those who want to … They've reminded people of their dating histories and of bizarre medieval paintings. This year, we’ve seen debates online get pretty heated, especially when it … Acting weird to escape one's intense sadness is a long­standing internet tradition, but the feral hogs belong to a narrower, bitterer class of those "lol nothing matters" memes. (It also was the subject of a particularly insightful episode of BoJack Horseman.) “Feral hogs are four-legged ecological disasters.” Earlier this week the “30-50 feral hogs” meme swarmed the internet, an unexpected by-product of the nationwide gun debate. Hogs use their snouts to dig through soil, leaving fields scarred and crops flattened. The banality of mass shootings and politicians' callous response is brain-breaking, and so is the diversity of experience in America. But they also kill livestock and reptiles. stages of Feral Hog Twitter 1. confusion seeing everyone tweet “30 to 50 feral hogs” 2. find the tweet & assume it’s satire 3. read the tweet again & realize it’s for real 4. like and RT only feral hog tweets for 12 hrs straight 5. become 30 to 50 feral hogs — Jess Dweck (@TheDweck) August 6, 2019. The WIRED conversation illuminates how technology is changing every aspect of our lives—from culture to business, science to design.