2005 - Volume #29, Issue #6, Page #44
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World's Biggest Pig Becoming A Celebrity
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Or how about a T-shirt with a photo of Norm on front?
Norm is a 4-year-old Yorkshire owned by Kerry Dart of Hubbardsville, N.Y. Norm weighs a whopping 1,600 lbs. and measures 8 ft. from snout to tail. He's 4 ft. high and so big that his belly drags the ground. A normal market-weight Yorkshire weighs only about 240 lbs.
Norm has become quite a celebrity. He has been on TV three different times and written up in USA Today, the Syracuse Post Standard, the Chicago Tribune, and even been mentioned on the Paul Harvey radio show.
Bob Peterson, Norm's original owner, purchased the pig as a service sire from a local farmer. Norm was kept in a pen with 16 to 18 pigs of various sizes. He got regular hog feed like all the other pigs, but he started to grow to freakish proportions and soon it became clear that Norm was no ordinary pig. "He just started growing into this super-sized pig," says Norm's new owner, Kerry Dart. The two friends would always talk back and forth regarding the weight of this humongous pig.
Norm's daily feedings consist of 10 lbs. of dry hog feed supplemented with milk replacer mixed with water. The milk replacer adds nutrition and flavor. Norm also has free choice water available to him. Norm also likes to consume outdated dairy products, pizza, slightly soured milk and other food scraps.
Bob was proud of Norm and showed him off as often as possible. Norm's popularity started growing last year when the Syracuse Post Standard wrote an article on him. Word spread fast, and people started coming to Peterson's farm to see Norm for themselves.
Peterson began to make plans on sharing Norm with the rest of the world. Late last fall, he approached friend Kerry Dart to become partners in Norm. Unfortunately, before the partnership could be finalized, Bob died suddenly during December. After losing his friend, Dart wanted to honor Peterson's wish that Norm never be slaughtered and approached the Peterson family about taking care of Norm.
Dart moved Norm to his new home, a 16 by 20-ft. pen with a half roof, last July. "I call him the world's largest known pig, which is an unofficial title," says Dart. "However, I think he really is the world's biggest pig because Norm has had so much media coverage and no one has come up with a bigger one. Apparently the all-time world's record is held by a Poland China pig from the 1950's that weighed more than 2,500 lbs."
Dart is offering honoree owner shares for anyone who would like to buy a piece of Norm. Fifteen hundred shares will be offered at $75 apiece. Darts says this will give people a chance to say they actually own part of the world's biggest pig.
The shares are for novelty only and carry with them no rights or responsibilities. A personalized certificate will be issued to each shareholder stating authentic part ownership. They can be purchased online only.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Kerry Dart, P.O. Box 784, Hubbardsville, N.Y. 13355 (ph 315 824-1788; www.worldsbigpig.com).
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