Some Porker Patrons Go Hog Wild at the County Fair

There was sawdust on the floor, dirt on the walls and an odor in the air.

But Diane Maxwell was in hog heaven Friday as she lingered at her favorite spot at the Los Angeles County Fair.

The elegantly dressed 60-year-old Hancock Park woman had come to the swine pavilion to enjoy the ambience and to buy a pet pig to take home.

“They’re intelligent, clean and can be house-broken in one day,” she said, cuddling a 10-day-old piglet owned by Dennis Leary, 17, of Fontana. “We’re looking for a Vietnamese black pot-bellied pig. We saw one here two years ago and have wanted one ever since. We’ll stop traffic when we walk it down the street on a leash.”

Porker fans say hogs are among the most misunderstood of animals. They claim pigs are not dirty, don’t over-eat, are not lazy, do not have slovenly hygiene habits and are not dumb.

At the county fair, which opened Thursday in Pomona and runs daily through Oct. 1, a mythical pig named Thummer has been the official mascot for 41 years. Old-timers say the pig was chosen because it is the one farm animal that always seems to be smiling.

Thummer was created in 1948 when the fair’s sign painter borrowed the happy face of a hog used as an emblem for World War II pig iron at Kaiser Steel in Fontana. The painter turned it into a hitch-hiking pig thumbing a ride to the fairgrounds.

The pig portraying Thummer at this year’s fair is a genuine ham. It is a 700-pound, 4 1/2-year-old trained pig named Sugar that had a featured role in the movie, “The Milagro Beanfield War.”

The fair’s pig competitions will begin today with a 1 p.m. college market swine show and 4-H swine showmanship judging at 6 p.m. The Future Farmers of America grand champion market swine will be chosen in a 9 a.m. contest Sunday.

In another contest for top hog honors, eight small trained pigs with names like “Hammy Faye Bacon” will race up to six times a day in free exhibition staged by an Arkansas company.

“At the end of the track is a pan filled with pig feed topped by an Oreo cookie,” said pig race trainer William Dodd. “There are four pigs racing and one Oreo. A pig would sell his mother to a packing plant for a bag of Oreos.”

At the swine pavilion, there was disagreement about that.

Porker expert Billie Hart, 71, of Villa Park sat under a sign that stated, “Actually, hog is man’s best friend.” She reminded visitors that hogs “never, ever, overeat. They are the only animal that doesn’t gorge itself. They don’t pig out.”

Nearby, however, 4-H Club member Christina Tibbets, 14, of Riverside, nibbled on a ham sandwich before tossing the remainder into the pen of her 170-pound hog, “Mandy.” In the blink of an eye, the animal leaped for the half-eaten sandwich and downed it.

Somebody should sign Mandy up for the pig race.