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Feral Hogs Attack and Kill a Woman in Texas Feral Hogs Attack and Kill a Woman in Texas
(about 7 hours later)
A woman died in Texas this week after a pack of feral hogs attacked her as she walked a short distance from her car to a house where she worked as a caretaker for an older couple, the police said. Christine Rollins steered her white sedan toward the rural Texas home and parked it just a few steps away from the front door. She stepped out of the car, locked it and prepared to head into the house, where she worked as a caretaker for an older couple.
Christine Rollins, 59, was attacked by several feral hogs when she showed up for work at the couple’s home Sunday morning in a rural area of Anahuac, Texas, about 50 miles east of Houston. The authorities said they were investigating whether Ms. Rollins had first fallen because of another medical condition or was knocked to the ground by the animals. Instead, according to the authorities who are now investigating her death, she was attacked by a herd of feral hogs before she could make the short walk.
“What we thought was a crime scene was not,” said Sheriff Brian C. Hawthorne of Chambers County, adding that a medical examiner had ruled the cause of death as “exsanguination due to feral hog assault,” or severe blood loss. Hog attacks are rare, but the scene was so harrowing that investigators could find no other explanation for Ms. Rollins’s death early Sunday morning in Anahuac, about 50 miles east of Houston.
Sheriff Hawthorne said that in his 35-year career, the tragedy was one of the worst he had seen. “It was like nothing we’d ever seen,” Sheriff Brian C. Hawthorne of Chambers County said in an interview on Tuesday, the day after a medical examiner ruled the cause of death as “exsanguination due to feral hog assault,” using a medical term for severe blood loss.
He said that based on the varying sizes of the bite wounds, the authorities believed that multiple feral hogs had attacked Ms. Rollins after she locked her car and walked toward the door of the couple’s house at about 6 a.m. on Sunday. One of the homeowners went to check on why Ms. Rollins, 59, had not come inside at her usual time and discovered her body on a small patch of grass.
Realizing that Ms. Rollins had not arrived on time, the 84-year-old homeowner walked outside and found her lying on the ground between her car and the front door of the house. Sheriff Hawthorne announced the cause of death on Monday after the medical examiner’s preliminary ruling. Ms. Rollins was one of three caregivers who worked 12-to-14-hour shifts looking after the husband, 84, and wife, 79, who suffer from memory loss. She was known for her compassion, the sheriff said, relaying a story of when Ms. Rollins drove over from another town to feed the couple when the wife got sick.
Sheriff Hawthorne said that feral hogs move in packs in the dark and can frustrate farmers around Texas, but they are rarely violent. He was only able to find six similar cases throughout the country. Ms. Rollins’s son-in-law told a local television station that the family had been preparing for her 60th birthday, which falls on Christmas.
Sheriff Hawthorne said it was clear from her injuries that Ms. Rollins had fought back against the hogs. He said it was impossible to know exactly how many had attacked her, but that there had been more than one, based on the varying sizes of her bite wounds.
There are millions of wild hogs in Texas, though they are rarely violent toward humans. Texans mostly encounter them when the animals have uprooted a flower bed or damaged crops. Unlike domesticated pigs, feral hogs can become aggressive if they feel trapped, or if a female hog is defending her offspring. Most weigh about 200 pounds, though they can grow to more than 500.
“Feral pigs will lunge at you and attack you” if they perceive a threat, said John J. McGlone, a professor of animal behavior at Texas Tech University who has studied feral and domestic hogs.
Sheriff Hawthorne said the tragedy was one of the worst he had seen in his 35-year career. He said that as developers build houses in rural areas, more wild hogs are coming into contact with people. But the only other hog attack he had worked on was when one had attacked a pet cat.
“Feral hogs are just that: They’re feral, they’re wild and they roam,” he said. “One minute they’re tearing up the land on one ranch, the next minute they’re tearing up the ranch in the town over.”
Feral hogs descended from European wild boars, which were first brought to Texas in the 1500s and sometimes bred with domesticated pigs, Professor McGlone said. They mostly eat vegetation but are omnivorous, and can briefly run at speeds up to 30 m.p.h.
The animals move in darkness to stay cool, which may have been why Ms. Rollins encountered them early in the morning. Adult males travel alone, Professor McGlone said, but juvenile males sometimes travel in pairs, and adult females travel in herds with one another and their young, sometimes numbering up to 50.
He said that if the hogs in this case had been laying near the house, they may have felt threatened by Ms. Rollins’s car.
Sheriff Hawthorne said he was only able to find a few similar deaths reported throughout the country.
“I don’t how many we’ve had in Texas,” he said. “I hope we never have another one in Chambers County.”“I don’t how many we’ve had in Texas,” he said. “I hope we never have another one in Chambers County.”
He said that the feral hogs had taken over some of the homeowner’s land. He said that the feral hogs may have eventually been scared away from Ms. Rollins by the homeowners’ dogs. Professor McGlone said that if someone encounters aggressive feral hogs, they should try to make as much noise as possible to scare them off, and get to a safe place.
Sheelagh McNeill contributed research.