Criticism and Congratulations for Boy Who Slew 'Monster Pig'

May 29, 2007— -- Killing a 1,051-pound pig doesn't just guarantee you a lifetime's worth of breakfast sausage. It can net you a movie deal -- and some very harsh public criticism.

Eleven-year-old Jamison Stone of Alabama became the darling of a slow news cycle when over the Memorial Day weekend news agencies across the country published a photo of the apple-cheeked boy grinning over the gigantic carcass of a 10-foot boar.

The publicity prompted his father, Mike Stone, to create a Web site that features photos of the boy and his trophy, dubbed Monster Pig. It's also earned Jamison a bit part in an upcoming film "The Legend of Hogzilla," based on the tale of a superpig gunned down in Georgia in 2004.

With fame, however, comes criticism. The Stones have been accused of everything from doctoring photos to make the pig look bigger to unnecessarily torturing an animal.

"We've gotten a lot of negative e-mail," Mike Stone told ABCNEWS.com. "People have said they want to see my boy killed in a hunting accident and gutted like a pig."

In the negative comments section of their Web site, monsterpig.com, one angry visitor wrote: "Hurry up and enlist in the Army, I want to see you chased and shot at. And maybe beheaded on video for us to see. … I will laugh while eating my veggie burger."

Another anonymous e-mail reads: "If you ate that pig, I hope it was carrying some kind of disease. The world would be better off without people like you."

According to the 2000 census, some 1.7 million children between the ages of 6 and 15 years old hunt in the United States.

Nevertheless, the idea of an 11-year-old chasing a boar on a fenced-in hunting ground for three hours and shooting it nine times with a handgun has many asking questions about the ethics of letting children hunt.

It also brings into sharp relief different attitudes about hunting in different parts of the country.

PeTA, or People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, gave Stone the Worst Dad in the Country Award "for not only teaching his son how to kill but also doing further harm by showing him how to make animals suffer."

"We look to parents to teach their kids empathy and compassion," said Daphna Nachminovitch, a PeTa spokeswoman. "This animal was not killed humanely; it was tortured. We oppose killing of animals for entertainment."

"[Stone] is the worst father because he not only taught his son to kill animals for sport but taught him how to do it slowly. The kid's father and two guides had shotguns and could have put the animal out of its misery rather than let it die slowly."

In a press release that accompanied the award, PeTA suggests that hunting is comparable to other forms of animal torture. One of the proven indicators of future criminal behavior, PeTA said, is torturing and killing animals.

PeTA's assertion was quickly shot down by James Janik, the chief psychologist at the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center in Chicago.

"Hunting isn't really what we're talking about," said Janik. "Hunting is not the same as animal abuse and wouldn't be a predictor of future criminal behavior. We're talking about evisceration, doing experiments and pouring acid on animals. I saw a kid who liked to put a cat in a box and shoot arrows at it."

The One Thing the NRA and the Brady Campaign Can Agree On?

Support for the child hunter has come from likely places -- the National Rifle Association -- and less likely places, like the Brady Campaign, a gun-control group.

"Mentored hunting is one of the safest forms of hunting available," said Andrew Arulanandam, an NRA spokesman.

"If you grew you up in a family of hunters, you were probably exposed to it at a younger age than a 30- or 40-year-old who is going hunting for first time. … The 11-year-old was in a mentored hunting situation and had been hunting before. By all means, it appears to be a safe hunting excursion."

The Brady Campaign agreed. "An 11-year-old can't purchase a gun and no one can sell a gun to a kid. If the boy was handling the weapon responsibly and was supervised by a parent, it's probably not some something we would oppose. … In many parts of the country, an 11-year-old is an experienced hunter."

Jamison bagged his first deer at age 5. His father plans to take his two daughters, aged 6 and 8, hunting soon.

The boy received praise, too, on his Web site.

"Great job young man. … It's better to be involved in hunting, fishing or sports than out doing drugs or drinking," wrote one anonymous poster.

Stone said the pig's head is currently being stuffed and its meat would be made into breakfast sausages and donated to local churches.