Escaped pig found rolling around playground — and ends up with new home, Florida cops say
The playground of a children’s learning center in Florida was getting a lot of use — but not by kids.
“Wrong hog for bike week,” the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office said in a March 6 Facebook post. “There is a loose pig in the area of St. John’s Avenue by the Children’s Reading Center.”
The pot-bellied pig, which the sheriff’s office believes escaped from a property in the area, stayed away from the road and started to make herself at home.
Since she wasn’t posing a threat, the sheriff’s office let her roll around in the grass in the hopes someone would come to claim the swine.
The sheriff’s office said multiple people reached out with “interest in our abandoned swine,” but the rightful owner never came forward.
Instead, an agricultural deputy started the process of choosing a new family for the pig.
“After two capture attempts, we successfully removed the pot belly pig from the Children’s Reading Center campus and she was starting to feel at home on their playground,” the sheriff’s office said. “After escaping from the playground, our boss hog decided to make like an egg and scramble, but with that much bacon on the hoof, the pursuit was short.”
The pig was safely placed in the back of a sheriff’s office truck and delivered to her new farm home.
“Our Ms. Pig now shares a home with two other pigs, a miniature horse and other farm animals,” the sheriff’s office said.
Pot-bellied pigs can make great pets, according to Pet Talk from Texas A&M University, because they are highly intelligent and can be housetrained just like dogs and cats.
However, it’s important to remember they can reach weights of 120 to 150 pounds, the college says, and they require lots of care.
The pig was found in Palatka, about a 50-mile drive south from Jacksonville.
This story was originally published March 8, 2024 at 5:34 PM with the headline "Escaped pig found rolling around playground — and ends up with new home, Florida cops say."
