Pigs given a reprieve

You are looking at more than 1,000 lbs. of pork that never made it to market. These pigs escaped slaughter, most recently the 800-pounder that an Arkansas woman found in her pool on Monday. In this case, a truck transporting 90 hogs to the sausage factory overturned on the interstate in Little Rock during rush hour. Locals on ATVs rounded up the animals who ran into the woods and provided them with drinking water, but this one went on the lam for 8 days until taking a dip in LeAnn Baldy's backyard. Now it can't be butchered because it is unknown what the pig ate during that time. Click on the photos for the stories, including a pair of boars that made a dash for it - slipping under a security fence and swimming an icy river - while being unloaded at a Wiltshire, U.K., abattoir in 1998. These two were dubbed "Butch Cassidy" and the "Sundance Pig" by nearby residents who refused to report their presence until 6 days later, once a newspaper had promised to purchase them and release them to an animal sanctuary. Another hog in Green Bay, Wisconsin, was tasered and tranquilized in 2006 before it could be recaptured (and may have had only a temporary reprieve). But "Louise" will live out her days at Safe Haven in Washington state after jumping out of the back of a truck, injuring herself and causing a multiple-car accident in 2004. And then there's the piglet nicknamed "Reuben" of Danville, Indiana, who may not have escaped his fate, but at least had a pampered vacation in 2005. These stories are far fewer than the many accounts of hogs on the highway that are rounded up immediately after their transport vehicle overturns - or are killed by the accident itself. I have avoided using puns in this post because, as indicated by the comments about this agonizing 2005 story of a recaptured pig, that would be in bad taste.
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