Rancher helps police capture 500-pound pig on the loose
When Janis Pugh of Rogue River, Oregon awoke early this week she caught a very unusual sight from her front porch. There in the yard was a huge 500-pound pig wandering about. Janis told KOBI News 5, "I was just stunned. I mean he was huge and he didn't seem aggressive. But when my dogs barked at him he started walking towards me which freaked me out so I ran back in the house."
The startled resident then called authorities for help and when they arrived they were a bit perplexed about how to handle the situation. Officer John Foster with the Rogue River Police Department recalled, "It was too big to put into the back of the police car, and it wasn't terribly coorporative to begin with."
Jackson County Animal Control informed the response team that they did not handle livestock, so officials called local rancher, Ted Birdseye for his expertise. “They are hard to contain if you don't have good facilities…They’ll crawl under fences and break stuff down. They’re, they’re pretty notorious for escaping,” said the rancher.
Birdseye said that he thought the female pig recently had piglets and hypothesized that the owner may have sold them and the mother was looking for the baby pigs. In all, it took 2 hours for the team to capture the wayward pig who is now in Ted Birdseye’s care until the unknown owner comes forward to claim her. No injuries occurred, and the only damage sustained were holes dug up in the yard. The Rogue River PD is asking for the public’s help in identifying the owner to get the pig back home.
More info: KOBI
