COLUMBUS Hog stripped of fair title after post-mortem exam

The disqualification was ordered this summer but was appealed.
By JEFF ORTEGA
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
COLUMBUS -- A Franklin County judge has upheld the Ohio Department of Agriculture's disqualification of the 2002 Ohio State Fair grand champion barrow.
Judge David L. Johnson of Franklin County Common Pleas Court said the department's ruling was correct in stripping the title from the hog of Taylor Creager of Wauseon, which was disqualified after state investigators said testicular tissue was found in the hog.
State livestock exhibition laws prohibit animals entered in a competition as having been castrated from retaining any testicular tissue.
Johnson wrote in his decision this month that the agriculture department's "order is supported by reliable, probative and substantial evidence and is in accordance with the law."
The state agriculture department ordered the disqualification in June 2003, according to court records, but Taylor's family appealed the order to the common pleas court in July 2003.
Taylor must forfeit awards, prizes, premiums and proceeds from the show but may continue to exhibit at the Ohio State Fair.
Taylor's sister, Bailey, showed the grand champion barrow at the 2003 Ohio State Fair. Bailey's barrow passed its post-mortem inspection, the agriculture department said.