LEDES 3: Hog Wild

"They wallow, grunt and eat almost anything they can stuff in their chops. They make a mess, tearing up the grass, spreading diseases and potentially costing the state millions. Feral pigs are more destructive than a horde of drunken college kids on a spring break bender, and they’re even harder to get rid of.

These aren’t the cute pink cuddly pigs of Babe and Charlotte’s Web. Sus scrofa are dark and bristly with cloven hooves and sharp curving tusks that can grow up to nine inches long. Scientists call them feral; hunters call them wild. Call them swine, hogs, pigs or boars, call them what you want, but Oregon calls them an invasive species and has come up with a Feral Swine Action Plan to get rid of the porky pests.

Feral pigs have been in Oregon for about 200 years, but biologists say they could soon go from unwelcome piggy guests to a full-blown porcine problem. They’re on Oregon’s “top 10 invasive species list” for their rototiller-like rooting, their ability to spread diseases to humans and other animals and their generally destructive nature. State agencies say now is the time to root out the problem, but how?"

This lede (and nut graph) is from last week's cover story in Eugene Weekly. The writer uses a mix of tools to effectively draw the reader into a long and potentially boring story about wild swine. The beginning of the first paragraph is a blind scene-setter; the reader gets a sense of what these wild things can do the the land and the state before they know what they actually are. The lede is also startling, which is an appropriate way to make sure the reader knows that we aren't talking about your standard, run-of-the-mill Babes. Nobody wants to read an article about pigs, unless those pigs are "more destructive than a horde of drunken college kids on a spring-break bender." The second paragraph also contains a direct address: "call them what you want..."

The article is a bit over-written and front-loaded with cute humor, but I don't really blame the author. It is clear that she enjoyed the topic and wanted the readers to get something out of it as well. I hope to write for an alt-weekly at some point, and this is exactly the kind of piece I find appealing: an unexpectedly fascinating expose on an overlooked controversy.