HE HUNTS KILLERS
The War at Long Creek, Part Two
 Editor’s
Note: Gene Brooks of Dublin, Georgia, hunts hogs in
three different states and is on call to a large number
of landowners and farmers. When a bad hog or a pack
of hogs starts eating and destroying crops, tearing
up roads and killing dogs, then landowners and farmers
call Brooks. Brooks' motto is, "Have Dogs, Will
Travel." Although Brooks catches and removes any
hog or group of hogs that terrorizes the landscape,
he specializes in "killer" hogs. Killer hogs
have been hunted before by other hog hunters and are
so bad that they leave bulldogs, curs and hounds lying
on the ground like casualties from a bombing raid. For
the next two weeks, we'll look at the man, his dogs
and the hogs he hunts.
 The
history of the catch dog goes all the way back to the
founding of this country, when both hogs and cattle
were allowed to roam free. When a stockman wanted to
catch his pork or round up his cattle, he'd often use
a catch dog to go in and hold the critter until he could
get a rope on it. Catch dogs are stock dogs bred and
trained for this dangerous mission. However, Blackjack
and Jack never had faced a hog as big, strong, smart
and tough as the Long Creek Boar. "When I released
the catch dogs, they both grabbed the big boar,"
Brooks explains. "But they didn't stay on him long.
That hog began to work on those dogs like a hot butter
k nife
cuts through soft butter. Dogs and blood were in the
air, and Blackjack had nine holes and cuts in him when
the hog was through with him. After the battle, I was
able to get Blackjack to the vet before he bled to death.
Once we arrived at the vet, the vet had to use two other
dogs as donors to get blood back in Blackjack as the
vet stitched him up. Luckily, Blackjack made it, but
Jack wasn't so lucky. The hogged ripped Jack's entire
chest open when Jack went in and grabbed the hog by
the ear. (That's where Jack always liked to catch a
hog). However, the hog was so strong and powerful that
he began to sling Jack around in the air like he was
a rag doll. Every time Jack came down from the air,
the hog came up with his tusk and ripped the dog. Jack
died on the spot. His courage had killed him. He was
just outmatched by the hog. Jack didn’t make a
mistake. He just had too much hog to handle."
 The
three cur dogs continued to bay the hog, and Neal knew
he had to move quickly and take action or else the other
dogs would be cut or killed. "Trip ran in behind
the hog and grabbed the big boar by the tail as the
boar tried to break to run," Brooks recalls. With
the hog's tail in his hand, Neal wrapped the tail around
his hand so he'd have a firm hold. At the same time
that Neal stopped the hog, the cur dogs attacked the
boar's head with the courage that was bred into them
through their bulldog ancestry. This point is when the
hog catching really gets serious. As Neal held onto
the wild boar's tail, stopping the hog, the dogs attempted
to grab the hog's ear and jaws. At the same time, Brooks
ran in to try and pick up a front leg of the hog and
knock him over. Both men and all three dogs were in
extremely-close quarters with the 525-pound, slashing-and-cutting
killing machine known as the Long Creek Boar.
TOMORROW: THE WAR AT LONG CREEK - PART THREE
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