r/nottheonion • u/1tWasA11aDr3am • 3d ago

Indiana State Police report that lions on the loose were actually hogs

https://www.mywabashvalley.com/news/feline-expert-lions-loose-in-indiana-are-probably-pigs/
1.9k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

70 comments sorted by

322

u/Quixificent 3d ago

I'm so incredibly curious as to how one looks at a group of hogs and believes they are lions. What were the pigs doing? How was "lions in rural Indiana" the very first thing their brain jumped to??

235

u/Spindrune 3d ago edited 3d ago

The most plausible redeeming devils advocate I can think of is that Indiana, with their weird not southern, not Midwest accent, they were trying to communicate that it was animals like from the lion king, and just didn’t do a good job explaining they meant… pumba? I think is the hogs name. 

Otherwise it’s that the source is good, and everyone else is dumb, and there is in fact lions on the loose. 

102

u/aledba 3d ago

I'm dying laughing at your explanation, like it has to be right

42

u/Spindrune 3d ago

Hey, there’s always the even worse option of the official story… guy said he saw lions, and police believed him enough to say it’s from a credible source publicly

10

u/rhysdog1 2d ago

theres an even worse possibility. theres a pack of hogs AND a pack of lions

5

u/Spindrune 2d ago

It’s Indiana. The pack of hogs is inherently true. 

15

u/wolfydude12 3d ago

From Indiana, this is correct

12

u/Obi2 3d ago

Southern Indiana is Kentucky. Central Indiana is Indiana (Midwest for sure). Northern Indiana is Michigan (also Midwest).

Pretty sure this link pig thing took place in southern Indiana checks out.

2

u/trainbrain27 1d ago

The first rest stop inside Indiana has maps that say Indiana includes Kentucky.

When visiting relatives in southern Indiana, we always say Indiana includes Kentucky.

4

u/nomoshoobies 2d ago

Well there's no power in Gary still so maybe they just can't see them clearly at night

-8

u/StrawberryK 2d ago

It's indiana everyone is dumb.

22

u/DSOTMAnimals 3d ago

There was a mission in RDR2 that helps explain this. Obviously, the caretaker painted the hogs to look like lions. Probably even attached a mane to one of them.

4

u/Ivotedforher 3d ago

Too many chili dogs were sucked

5

u/Mr_Baronheim 3d ago

Perhaps they ran off behind the shady trees

3

u/Under_Pressure_70 3d ago

They said they were lions… not Cougars

3

u/willstr1 3d ago

It's almost literally a "horses not zebras" situation

3

u/tfrw 3d ago

It appears to be a heat sensing drone - so maybe they were covered in mud or something which confused the camera

3

u/kdoodlethug 3d ago

It's very literally Occam's Razor in action (if you hear hooves, think horses, not zebras).

5

u/PartyPorpoise 3d ago

A lot of people, even those in rural areas, are quite bad at identifying wildlife. There are frequently news articles about puma sightings that turn out to be bobcats or even house cats.

Edit: and of course, many cryptid sightings are misidentified wildlife.

2

u/rollerfedora 3d ago

Copious amounts of home-grown weed.

1

u/MisterBigDude 3d ago

If someone is dyslexic, they might get confused between pork loins and park lions.

1

u/yay855 2d ago

Half-feral pigs, that is, pigs that are the offspring of escaped domesticated pigs and wild boars, can often have an array of traits from both parents, sometimes resulting in an animal that is mostly pale around its midsection but has a bristly "mane" of darker fur near its head.

2

u/Quixificent 2d ago

Oh, super interesting! Thanks!

1

u/TheLordOfAwesome2 2d ago

Wild hogs can get really big.

1

u/redwingsphan19 1d ago

I mean, there was a giraffe in Texas…

0

u/AnalObserver 3d ago

I mean in fairness there was also reports of an ostrich walking the streets on the eastside of Indy just recently lol

80

u/Impossible_Offer7988 3d ago

Rebecca Rizzo, Head Keeper at the Exotic Feline Rescue Center in Center Point. Rizzo said it only took her crew 15 minutes to mobilize.

I had called back and was told they had located the animals and it was pigs. They had confirmed that there were pigs in the area,” said Rizzo

Madison County Sheriff John Beeman spoke with WTWO concerning the report of lions in his county. We had received a call yesterday (8/27) at 10 a.m. by a credible witness that said he had seen the lions,” said Sheriff Beeman

Saying credible after this moron mistook a bunch of Pigs for lions, is alarming

Like if he's still credible after that, somone should probably look into this department when it comes to more serious cases.

43

u/NewRecommendation287 3d ago

Ironically, the Feline Center has had their fair share of escaped animals over the years. Most notable is the Cougar who was never located in the 90s. Source: I live here.

22

u/Mr_Baronheim 3d ago

Damn, she's gotta be in her 80s by now.

1

u/YesNo_Maybe_ 3d ago

So hot right now 

8

u/stefanica 3d ago

That's why he was just called Mellencamp.

25

u/Fist69 3d ago

The lions wrote this

16

u/dirt_mcgirt4 3d ago

"Nobody here but us hogs"

19

u/Lonely-Clerk-2478 3d ago

Have you met an Indiana state trooper? (I have.) Dumber than boxes of rocks, these people.

14

u/perplexedparallax 3d ago

I wouldn't expect that mistake from a big agricultural state with more hogs than lions.

6

u/PartyPorpoise 3d ago

Even in rural areas, a lot of people are quite bad at identifying wildlife.

17

u/Mr_Baronheim 3d ago

So, the police called back and told the feline expert that "it was pigs. They had confirmed that there were pigs in the area."

Of course there were, but did they keep looking for the lions?

7

u/nervelli 3d ago

Did they find a pig in a blue harness, or did they just find a large animal and stop looking? Just because you did find pigs doesn't mean there wasn't also a lion.

14

u/Fetlocks_Glistening 3d ago

"Yeah, I said them pigs were lyin' around, lyin' around, y'hear?"

15

u/NeitherEntry6125 3d ago

This is some kind of metaphor for the youth of this generation.

Andrew Tate thinks he's a lion but is really a hog or something like that.

9

u/PartyPorpoise 3d ago

Even in rural areas, a lot of people are quite bad at misidentifying wildlife. A lot of “cougar” and “panther” sightings end up being bobcats or even house cats. And of course, a lot of cryptid sightings are just misidentified wildlife.

5

u/Quarantini 3d ago

Hmm this seems like the point in Jaws where someone catches a little tiger shark and the mayor declares this is definitely the animal they were looking for and the problem is solved and everything is fine.

5

u/Key_Contribution1547 3d ago

Well apparently the drugs in Indiana are good . Really hard to mix this up . Put them side by side

5

u/Ok-Minute6704 3d ago

50 ferral fucking hogs

6

u/plasticman1997 3d ago

Donald Trump was visiting Indiana? He also claims to be a lion despite being a pig

5

u/Icy-Computer-Poop 2d ago

♫In the jungle, the quiet jungle,

The piggies sleep tonight.♪

3

u/apiercedtheory 3d ago

No excuse for the mis identification, but for those believing it there have been cases of lions loose in Indiana. The guy who committed suicide by walking into his enclosure after letting his “zoo” free for example.

3

u/Status-Television-85 3d ago

TURNS OUT IT WAS A POG WEARING A RICHARD NIXON MASK

3

u/TheJar13 3d ago

For 50 seconds I thought there were monsters on the world.

3

u/Rosebunse 3d ago

Were these wild hogs or escaped farm pigs?

4

u/PinkOneHasBeenChosen 2d ago

Either way, they wouldn’t look much like lions.

5

u/shanksisevil 3d ago

To their credit, they are from Indiana. They aren't the brightest. 

2

u/fps129 3d ago

They all escaped from Circe’s crib. They used to be cops.

2

u/My_leg_still_hurt92 3d ago

Germany did it first

2

u/kidcrush187 2d ago

You would think gang recognize gang.

2

u/YVNGxDXTR 2d ago

As an Indiana born man, i can say this was probably the cops fault. But i could be just as dumb, as i was born in Indiana.

2

u/Thin-Captain-2036 2d ago

Roommates grandparents had some kangaroos in Wisconsin when I was in college (why? I have no fucking clue, not the point) They escaped and the rural cops shot them because they thought they were mountain lions. Again why? Not sure, I guess that’s a cops job? But moral of the story is people are ignorant and fucking stupid

3

u/Theo1352 3d ago

It's Indiana, what do you expect?

Never taught the difference between pigs and lions.../s

(Live just across the border, BTW)

2

u/Initial_E 3d ago

Pumba sad now

1

u/brokendream78 3d ago

Considering education in the US, this doesn't surprise me. Who hasn't confused a hog with a lion?

1

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1

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1

u/Icy-Computer-Poop 2d ago

We can trust the cops on this one. Pigs know pigs.

1

u/SoupSpelunker 2d ago

Pop some red hats on 'em and most indianians would have just figured they'd stumbled onto another trump rally. 

1

u/Fievels_good_trouble 2d ago

This tracks. A lot of pigs think they are lions

1

u/Puzzleheaded-King584 1d ago

From lions to hogs in one drone pass, what a plot twist. The sheriff's probably still out there double checking security cams just in case.

1

u/charlton11 3d ago

Quit lion.