Minnesota Hog Goes Hollywood

Minnesota Hog Goes Hollywood AG WORLD Ag World HENDERSON MINN : Ed was one of those patient unassuming creatures who was quietly chugging through life when fame suddenly struck Now Ed s gone Hollywood Got himself a pair of custom-made shades Goes in for shampoos and skin treatments Gets massages Has a pad of his own and ignores his old roommates Ed you see has been on Johnny Carson s show And why you ask was unassuming Ed on the Tonight Show? Because Ed is a pig It wasn t that Ed was a particularly smart pig Or that he could jump through a hoop or do any other tricks He wasn t even cute and cuddly Nor was he the ugliest pig you ever saw But he is one of the biggest pigs you ll ever see How big is he? So big that no one tells him what to do Not even his owner Ron Lieske Ed s a friendly fellow says Lieske but if you want to get him to do something - like get him out of a pen-you just sort of encourage him Or maybe bribe him with a handful of feed You don t push him around That s because Ed weighs 850 pounds although he is only 2 years old He ll put on another 300 before he s grown Despite all that heft Ed would have lived the quiet but good life in Minnesota without any fanfare if it hadn t been for his owner who is an unabashed pig lover Lieske likes pigs because they ve been good to the Lieske family His grandfather raised them His father raises them His brother raises them and he raises them He has more than 1 000 virtually all of them breeding stock that he sells to farmers One night while Lieske was watching TV one of Carson s guests was a zookeeper who had brought along two piglets She made a few general comments about pigs but Lieske thought that more could be said to explain to the whole country just what nice fellows pigs really are Lieske who has a degree in agriculture from the University of Minnesota wrote a letter volunteering his services and enclosed a picture of one of his 800-pound boars Back came a form letter saying in effect we aren t interested But Carson did show the picture on his show one night mentioning that Lieske was from Henderson New Mexico Lieske decided to persist He wrote again pointing out the error and renewing his offer to appear on the show with one of his pigs This time a staffer showed some interest In fact there was so much interest that they wanted Lieske to come to Los Angeles in May Lieske kept trying to explain that it was too hot for a pig to travel I m not sure that guy ever understood that pigs don t have sweat glands and that getting too hot can be extremely dangerous Lieske said It was finally agreed that Lieske would be on the Sept 24 show Lieske drove out with his brother Glenn and two friends Ed and his understudy Doc were in a padlocked trailer Ed and Doc spent a couple of days at the Los Angeles fairgrounds before Ed was taken to the studio in midafternoon to tape the show He was an instant star People came over from other studios to see THE PIG Ed walked right down the hallway without any trouble said Lieske Ed never did get nervous He munched some corn meal from Carson s hand wore his dark glasses and in general was as nonchalant as a star ought to be The same can t be said for Lieske He admits having been pretty nervous although he did remember to get in a plug for the pork industry And he explained that Ed is from the Large White breed of hogs frequently called Yorkshires that was imported from Ireland The Lieskes have sold hogs to farmers in several states Canada Argentina and Japan And their fame is spreading thanks to Carson Doug Henning the magician has called and is interested in having Ed on a TV special Seems Henning wants to make Ed magically appear in a large box that was empty a moment before Last week Ed was the guest of honor at the Farm-City Hub Club Radio Breakfast in New Ulm Mini The breakfast was a promotion for National Pork Month And inquiries have been coming in from shopping centers wondering if Ed is available for promotional appearances Lieske said that he may have to limit the appearances for both his sake and Ed s We have to be careful and not let him Ed get sick from carting him around As for me well I m still enjoying it but I can see how the attention would get old after awhile He doesn t expect that to happen because in two or three months he expects to be known as plain old Ron Lieske the 28-year-old pig man from Henderson And Ed probably won t even be able to find his dark glasses Reprinted with permission from the Minneapolis Tribune

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