Man acquitted in Delta pigs case; ownership still unclear

“They’re vegetarians and they don’t like people eating pork. They came from New York and they stole my hogs off that island without my permission.” ROGER STEVENSON, CLAIMS OWNERSHIP OF PIGS

— The man at the center of the tale of the “stolen” Delta pigs was acquitted Monday of charges that he allowed the pigs to roam on a busy highway.

But it’s unclear if the decision will allow 60-year-old Roger Stevenson to get his pigs back — for a second time — from an East Coast animal welfare group that seized them from a small Delta island west of Stockton earlier this summer.

The pigs in question are descendants of animals that Stevenson says he placed on the island as a future personal meat supply and to control vegetation. They soon became a popular attraction for Delta boaters, some of whom would frequently visit the island and feed them.

Other boaters, however, were worried about the pigs’ well-being on the remote island, where some visitors reportedly tried to ride them like horses and pour beer down their throats.

Thus, the surprise “rescue” operation in June by New Yorkbased Farm Sanctuary.

Since then, the story has careened like a pinball into three counties and two courts. And still the issue is unresolved.

In a Calaveras County courtroom on Monday, Judge Thomas Kolpacoff determined there was not enough evidence to convict Stevenson on six counts of failing to control livestock at his property in Arnold. But to Stevenson’s dismay, the judge did not weigh in on the question of ownership of the pigs, nor did the judge order animal control officials to return them.

“You’ll have to deal with that through a different process,” Kolpacoff told Stevenson. “I can’t give you legal advice.”

To which Stevenson replied, “You’re telling me you find me not guilty but you’re not going to help me get my stolen property back to me?” He sarcastically thanked the judge and stalked out of the courtroom, threatening to sue the county as he went.

Buckle up for a recap of what led to this point:

After Farm Sanctuary snatched the pigs from the island and delivered them to the University of California, Davis Veterinary Hospital for treatment, Stevenson filed a report with the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office claiming to be the rightful owner. A sheriff’s lieutenant determined that Stevenson did own the pigs because they are the descendants of pigs he placed on the island, supposedly with the property owner’s consent.

So hospital officials released the pigs back to Stevenson rather than to Farm Sanctuary.

But the pigs were returned during one of this summer’s worst heat waves. Instead of having the animals taken to his daughter’s 2-acre pen in sweltering Copperopolis, Stevenson had them brought to the area where he lives along an abandoned golf course in cooler Arnold.

He set up a makeshift 16square-foot pen on the old golf course. Officers soon got a call that the pigs were roaming loose and found them near Highway 4 up to a mile away from the pen; they spent hours herding them to Stevenson’s property, animal control official Michelle Tallman told the judge on Monday.

Stevenson believed his acquittal meant he would get the pigs back. When animal control took the pigs from the golf course, they turned them back over to Farm Sanctuary to be cared for until the ownership issue could be resolved.

To Stevenson, the ownership issue is resolved. He said he intends to visit Calaveras animal control today and ask for his pigs back before considering legal action.

Tallman declined to comment outside court, and a Farm Sanctuary spokeswoman did not reply to an email seeking comment Monday.

Stevenson said he was happy the judge found in his favor, but said he still wants his pigs back from the “animal rights activists.”

“They’re vegetarians and they don’t like people eating pork,” he said. “They came from New York and they stole my hogs off that island without my permission.”