Definition
A hog is a domestic swine, and in legal contexts the word has been construed broadly to encompass related animals and conditions. Courts and legislatures have treated "hog" as:
1. Synonymous with "swine" generally, including sows and castrated boars.
2. Inclusive of young animals — a pig four or five months old qualifies.
3. Applicable to the dead animal as well as the living one, meaning a hog carcass retains the legal designation for purposes of larceny statutes and similar provisions.
4. A subset of "cattle" for certain statutory purposes, particularly fencing requirements and commercial guaranty instruments, even though hogs are not bovine animals.
The term's legal reach is therefore wider than its zoological precision might suggest, and courts have consistently resisted narrow readings that would exclude sows, piglets, or carcasses.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Any animal of the Suidae family, particularly the pig, warthog, or boar; specifically an adult swine as distinguished from a young pig; also colloquially a greedy person or a large motorcycle.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): A quadruped of the genus Sus and allied genera; especially the domesticated variety kept for fat and meat; specifically a castrated boar. Also, in English usage, a young unshorn sheep; a scrubbing broom for a ship's hull.
The legal gap worth noting: ordinary usage sometimes draws a distinction between a "hog" (adult) and a "pig" (young), and Webster's 1913 applies "hog" specifically to a castrated boar. Legal sources reject that precision — courts have held "hog" covers young animals, sows, and carcasses alike. Researchers reading older statutes or guaranty instruments should not import the lay adult/juvenile distinction into legal interpretation.
Common Confusion
HOG vs. CATTLE: The extension of "hog" into the statutory category of "cattle" is counterintuitive and jurisdiction-dependent. In general agricultural and property law, "cattle" ordinarily means bovines. However, courts in fencing and commercial contexts have held that hogs are "cattle" within the meaning of statutes designed to protect landowners from straying livestock. This is an interpretive result driven by statutory purpose, not a general equivalence. Researchers should not assume that every statute using "cattle" sweeps in hogs — the construction turns on context, the statute's evident purpose, and the jurisdiction.
HOG vs. SWINE: The two terms are legally synonymous according to both Anderson's and Bouvier's, but "swine" appears more frequently in older statutory text. When researching livestock regulations, fencing laws, or larceny provisions in historical sources, search both terms.
Why It Matters in Research
The legal significance of "hog" arises almost entirely in three contexts: (1) livestock larceny statutes, where the definition of the animal determines the offense and its grade; (2) fencing and straying statutes, where the question is whether a hog owner or a landowner bears responsibility for damage; and (3) commercial instruments — particularly guaranty agreements — where the commodity description controls which shipments are covered.
The living/dead distinction matters for larceny research. Statutes punishing theft of a "hog" have been construed to reach the carcass, meaning slaughtering another's animal and taking the meat falls within the statute. Researchers tracing criminal cases in 19th-century Southern and Midwestern reporters should watch for this construction, which resolved a genuine interpretive dispute in multiple states.
The "cattle" problem is a trap. A researcher scanning a fencing statute for "hog" may miss the operative case law, which resolved the animal's status under the word "cattle." Cross-searching is essential in agricultural states where hog farming was economically central — Alabama, Florida, Indiana, South Carolina, and Texas all generated reported cases on this question.
Jurisdictional variation in the pig/hog age threshold is real but rarely dispositive today. The historical cases show courts willing to call a four-to-five-month-old animal a "hog" for statutory purposes, but modern agricultural regulations typically define animals by weight or production category rather than common name.
Historical Dictionary Support
Anderson's and Bouvier's are in full agreement on the core points: "hog" includes sow, includes young pig, includes carcass, and is synonymous with swine. Both sources treat the "cattle" extension as established but contextual rather than universal.
Bouvier's cites Alabama, Indiana, Florida, South Carolina, and Texas authority for the various propositions, reflecting that hog-related litigation was geographically concentrated in states where open-range and fencing law disputes were common in the post-Civil War era. Anderson's adds the commercial guaranty context — drafts against shipments of "cattle" covering hogs — which Bouvier's does not address, making Anderson's the more useful source for commercial research.
Neither dictionary addresses the living/dead distinction with particular depth beyond confirming the result. The underlying reasoning — that a statute aimed at protecting property in livestock would be frustrated if slaughter immunized a thief — is implicit rather than elaborated. Researchers wanting the doctrinal reasoning will need to go to the primary cases.
Webster's 1913 English usage of "hog" for an unshorn young sheep has no legal counterpart in American law sources. That meaning is regional British usage and should be disregarded entirely in American legal research contexts.
Jurisdictional Note
The "hog as cattle" construction appears in Southern and Border State cases from the latter half of the 19th century and reflects open-range fencing disputes specific to that region and era. Northern and Eastern jurisdictions with different agricultural regimes may not have developed equivalent case law. Modern statutory schemes have largely superseded these common-law constructions, but historical research in those jurisdictions requires awareness of the doctrine.