California

Photo of Bright Blue Pig Shot at California Ranch Goes Viral

File this one under Freaky Friday.

A photo of a pig with mysterious blue fat under its skin has received more than a million views on Imgur, with hundreds weighing in about what could have caused the odd color.

Someone with the username GlendilTEK posted it to the online image sharing community with the title "The Weird Pig."

GlendilTEK claims that his in-laws shot the pig on their ranch in Morgan Hill, California.

"They thought it a normal pig until they cut it open," he wrote. "When they cut into the pig they found that the fat on the pig was a fluorescent blue."

Attempts to contact GlendilTEK Friday were not successful.

GlendilTEK later added: "Just to clarify since there has been questions they did not start cutting open the pig until they had strapped it to the ATV and driven back home so most of the blood has left the pigs body at this point."

He says nobody has any clue as to why the fat is this color: "Everything else about the pig was normal, the meat, blood, etc. The only weird part was the blue fat throughout the body."

"I know blue pigmentation is often caused from copper poisoning but all that they have are some old mercury mine shafts that they have filled in," GlendilTEK wrote. "They have also shot wild pigs on the ranch before and none of them have been blue."

Reached Friday, a spokesperson for the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine said: "I’ll file that under Freaky Friday …We can’t make any assumptions based on a photo that may or may not be contrived."

The ranchers plan to send a sample to UC Davis to see if they can get an explanation.

A spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife told the Morgan Hill Times experts have “occasionally” seen cases where wild pigs have exhibited "similar discoloration of their insides."

"In those cases, it was determined the affected animals had likely consumed chemicals that contained a blue dye," they said.

“Pigs eat pesticides and rodenticides, and it stains the fat of the pig,” Fish and Wildlife spokesman Andrew Hughan said. “We recommend not eating the animal, and you should try to dispose of it so it doesn’t get back into the environment.”

Contact Us