Assault By Frozen Armadillo

Oct. 2011

Dallas police are searching for a man who allegedly used a frozen armadillo to attack a woman who had been trying to buy the critter.

Unfrozen armadillo photo

Investigators told Fox 4 News-Dallas Fort Worth that the fight started in an apartment parking lot Sept. 29 when the suspect was selling the carcass to the alleged victim, who planned to eat it.

The pair were haggling over the price when police said the man hurled the armadillo at the 57-year-old woman twice. The woman was struck in her leg and chest, and suffered bruises, police said.

So far, investigators have been unable to track down the suspect, who they said could face assault by armadillo charges.

According to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Texas law prohibits the sale of live armadillos (the armadillo involved was frozen and thus presumably dead), but some Texans still savor the meat. Some developed a taste for armadillo during the Great Depression of the 1930s, when it was known as “Hoover Hog” and “poor man’s pork.”

However the 57-year-old woman wasn't born until 1954, two decades after the Great Depression so it is unlikely she acquired her taste for armadillo meat 20 years prior to her birth.

--Molly Hennessy-Fiske in Houston, who did not notice the apparent time disconnect.