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MAGNA — Officers with the Unified Police Department found themselves in the middle of an unlikely pursuit when they were called to a neighborhood to round up a stray pig.
Just after 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, officers were called to the area of 2800 South and 8950 West, initially believing they may be dealing with a ‘pit,’ or pit bull.
Officer Melissa Patino said they soon learned from a witness it was, in fact, a pig running loose.
“We tried to wrangle him in by giving him carrots and just some bread,” Patino said. “Unfortunately he didn’t want that so he took us just up the street and he went into oncoming traffic, so we kind of cornered him.”
Eventually, about five houses up the street, officer Kyler Roush spotted the pig hiding underneath a trailer and grabbed it by the hind leg in a feat caught on body camera.
“He was not happy to be caught!” Roush said. “Animal control came out and helped us out and took him back to a safe place for the night so he doesn’t get run over and turned into road bacon.”
Salt Lake County Animal Services crews took the pig to its shelter, where it remained Thursday.
Photos circulated by the shelter Thursday afternoon showed an apparently content pig resting on some hay.
Patino quipped that she wouldn’t mind owning the pig herself, but hoped the real owner would come forward to claim the animal.
Despite a lot of squealing, Roush said he was grateful the situation was resolved relatively peacefully.
“Pig-on-pig violence happens sometimes and luckily everybody ended up safe on this one,” Roush said.
