If you read about today's hog production, it is apparent that the only
traits selected for are related to fertility and meat quality.   Hog
selection is not based on intelligence,  stamina, or anything else related
to survival in the wild.  So it is questionable what a production hog would
do now if suddenly released into the wild from its 7 X 2 foot gestation
crate.  See
(http://livestocktrail.illinois.edu/swinerepronet/paperDisplay.cfm?ContentID
=7588)

If you do read the link,  you see it is posted about the breeding,  not
genetics.  Different topics.

We know exactly what happens when you release hogs to the wild even todays
pigs as it happens on occasion.  They do just fine,  quickly adapting to
conditions and becoming difficult if not impossible to catch.   Several
farmers have released them in lieu of bank proceedings.   Usually the white
ones are easily found and destroyed.  Durocs are a bit harder to find
(personal experience)  Poland Chinas ( a breed I raised) are very
productive,  extremely defensive and aggressive and are running feral in
many places in Texas.    If you think any hogs are stupid,  you don't know
them at all.   I would bet large amounts of cash that any hog released will
survive far beyond what you think.  


Your vet friend is not very bright.   Dairy cattle release do fine.   They
go DRY in a cpl weeks without being milked,   so saying they couldn't
survive is just plain crazy.  Dairy cattle are kept in a state of lactive
reproduction.  Unmilked they revert to dry cow status and the requirements
to produce milk in bulk vanish.  In Fact if you actually study the dairy you
will find that our knowledge of  feeds to produce more milk,  far exceeds
our genetic manipulations.

We have coddled a few genes,  that's for sure,  such as the aforementioned
bulldogs.   Obviously some traits would quickly prove to be not conductive
to natural selection  (such as white creatures that can't hide or handle sun
well)   but to think we have altered the genetics so far that the breed
would vanish like dodo's is a bit of a stretch of imagination.

Seems Randys correct,  we are into the semantics.

Charles

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