My Maternal Grandfather put the fear of pigs in me at an early age. He had raised pigs for slaughter all his life. That's how a poor farmer like him was able to feed my Mother and her eight siblings. Anyway, when I was four or five and starting to wander from his farmhouse, he FORBID me to even think about going close to his hog pen. It was an old still sturdy wooden rail fenced area, that had a couple of pigs in it. "If you get in that pen, they will eat you up, clothes and all, and we won't even know what happened to you." Even my older teen-aged cousins were forbidden to go down there, let alone sit on the rail fence to watch them, for the possibility of falling in the pen. Grandpa spoke almost with the authority of God, so we heeded his warnings. Anyway, a lady friend of mine had some cousins move into our rural area a couple of years ago from Houston; city people. I may have met them once. Their new rural place had a couple acres of land, and they soon acquired a few animals, including a "darling" little orphaned piglet. Not one of those Chinese miniature pigs, but a plain old pig. That became the pet of the teenage female cousin. He is now a full grown boar with tusks. When I heard that the young gal was still going in the pen with him and petting him and stuff, I told my lady friend, that that was a disaster waiting to happen. I do not know if you believe this or not, but I think that ALL males of any animal species, know when there is a female of any animal species, that is "in heat." I think that it is simple biology, having witnessed it countless times with my male dogs and human females I have had around. Well, the disaster happened yesterday. The teenage gal went in the pen to feed the boar, and he went after her. She was lucky she got out of the pen alive. He stuck a tusk in her calf, and severed an artery. Her Mother had nursing experience and contained the bleeding till the medics got there. The way I understood it, they "stapled" the artery shut, and got her to the ER, where everything was fixed up. She has a bunch of stitches, but is fine. I assume that the pig met his demise when the Father got home, if he knew how to shoot it. I have heard similar stories of people having "pet" deer and "pet" coons, that end up tearing things up. I do not "fear" animals, but I have a big amount of respect for them. If they are over fifty pounds, I give them their space, and I am always on guard. If they are a "mamma" with little ones, no matter the size, I give them their space. MM