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We advocate on all animal protection and exploitation issues, including experimentation, factory farming, rodeos, breeders and traveling animal acts.

Animal Defenders of Westchester
P.O. Box 205
Yonkers, NY 10704

Articles

Slaughterhouse-bound pig tries to escape

From the BANGOR MAINE NEWS www.bangornews.com   Nov. 15, 2005; our published letter appears below the article, dated Nov. 22:

Ellsworth Escape

280-pound pig delays trip to slaughterhouse with leap from trailer

Tuesday, November 15, 2005 - Bangor Daily News

http://www.bangornews.com/news/templates/?a=123689 

spanish: http://www.animanaturalis.org/modules.php?goto=Nvst11_4020

ELLSWORTH - A 280-pound pig bound for a Bangor slaughterhouse saw a red light as an opportunity Monday when it jumped clear out of the wooden trailer it was riding in and attempted to make a break for it.

When its owner stopped for a traffic light at the corner of Oak and Main streets at about 11:30 a.m., the freedom-seeking sow leaped for her life and scampered down the road toward Lincoln Street.

The pink pig with brown spots fled on hoof as officers pursued her to Birch Street and through several yards before she stopped on Bayview Avenue to rest after about 30 minutes of freedom.

"She was tired so she laid down," said Ellsworth police Officer Daniel Owens, who chased the swine along with Officer Chad Wilmot. "That's probably the most exercise she has had in her life."

Police officers and firefighters surrounded her, looped a rope around her pork shoulders and lassoed her neck with a dog snare. They attempted to drag her back to the trailer using a flexible plastic backboard but the feisty pig would have none of it; she protested by curling her pink lips and letting out piercing squeals that made bystanders wince.

"You just feel badly for the poor thing," said neighbor Barbara Williams, who watched from a safe distance near the street.

Williams went outside after seeing a television cameraman's head bob past her living room window. Several other residents and the mailman joined her to see what was going on.

A short time later, Anne Hayes returned home from dropping a friend off at the airport to find firetrucks and cruisers lining the road. She pulled her Toyota into the driveway just in time to see several men in blue uniforms wrangling a pig outside her yellow farmhouse.

"What's going on?" she said. "We thought the house was on fire."

With help from the pig's owners, who live in Bar Harbor, police and firefighters were able to muscle the tenacious animal back onto the trailer, where it laid down on a pile of dirt and crab apples and closed its eyes.

Without saying much, the owners jumped into the cab of the pickup truck and set back on course for the slaughterhouse.

While unfortunate for the pig, the incident was good for a few laughs, a few hog jokes and for breaking up an otherwise boar-ing day.

For Williams and her neighbors, the pig puns came easily.

"We just ham it up down here on Bayview," she said.

######

Pig's quest for freedom

Why did you end the story about the poor pig's attempt to avoid the slaughterhouse (BDN, Nov. 15) with such a chilling comment as "While unfortunate for the pig, the incident was good for a few laughs, a few hog jokes and for breaking up an otherwise boar-ing day."

Was it because the hopelessness of this intelligent animal's struggle was too much for you to bear, so you had to joke about it?

Tears are running down my cheeks thinking about how she "closed her eyes" and gave up, when she was dragged back to the slaughterhouse truck. In my opinion, being a human implies having some compassion and feeling for other living beings; shame on everyone who made a joke out of this animal's quest for freedom.

Kiley Blackman

Yonkers, N.Y.

See: Letter from Ellie about "Slaughter-house pig tries to escape"


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