Austin Riley raised his warthog, Waylon Jennings, from birth, but one day, the animal turned on him.
A Texas man nearly lost his life when his pet warthog attacked him.
Austin Riley, 32, raised his warthog from birth. He named his warthog, Waylon Jennings, after the country music performer.
One day in 2022, Waylon the warthog turned on him. The animal had stabbed Riley at least 15 times before a neighbor fatally shot it, Texas Monthly reported. Riley survived the attack, which he looked at as the ultimate betrayal from an animal he considered family.
“For years, that animal trusted me everyday and I trusted him,” Riley told Texas Monthly. “I put blood, sweat, and tears into his life, and he decided to kill me.”
Greg Para says he feels for Riley, as he too has an incredibly close bond with his own warthog, Wallace.
“He’s like a dog. He sleeps on the couch, chews a bone, and he follows me everywhere,” Para tells Inside Edition. “He is very playful with me. He will nudge me and play with me.
Para says he has also been injured by his warthog.
“He hit me with his head and then I felt something on my ankle and I look down and I was bleeding and I had about an eight-inch gash in my knee and I never felt it,” Para says.
Para says warthog attacks can be brutal because of their tusks. They have two tusks on both sides of their face. Their top tusk is round but their bottom tusks can be razor-sharp, Para says.
“I don’t think [Riley] did anything. The pig loved him and he used to spend, like I do, laying down on the ground with him for six hours at a time,” Para tells Inside Edition. Para says getting a warthog as a pet “is really not worth the risk.”
