‘My missed piggy must come back’
"She's my pig."
David Wilson
The owner of a roaming pet pig captured by authorities plans to fight for the return of his porcine friend.
The black sow, which spent months wandering the New Plymouth suburb of Vogeltown, was caught on Friday by the New Plymouth District Council’s animal control officer with the help of some mince pies.
The animal, nicknamed ‘‘The Penny Lane Pig’’, has been sent to live on a farm in Stratford.
But David Wilson, the owner, said he had cared for the pig for the last 20 months and said he would fight to keep her close.
‘‘She might be wandering around doing whatever she wants but she’s my pig,’’ he said.
‘‘I won’t be stopping ‘til they give me my pig back.’’
Wilson said he first found the pig in Uruti at the start of 2016. At the time, the curly-tailed animal was so tiny, Wilson had to feed her with an eye-dropper.
As the pig grew in size, so did her independence.
‘‘She’s aways had somewhere that she was going to go to,’’ Wilson said. ‘‘But she would still come back here once a week.’’
In the early hours of the morning Wilson would hear banging on his door.
He would set out a mixture of bread, jam and milk and ‘‘she loved it’’, he said. ‘‘And then she’d be off again.’’
But the bond was more than about food, Wilson said.
The pig often enjoyed watching through Wilson’s kitchen window as he did dishes, he said.
Wilson’s Glenpark Ave home, which backs onto a walkway where people walk dogs, was the pig’s favourite spot to roam.
It once brought back with it a pair of gloves Wilson had dropped on the walkway.
He said he attempted to keep the pig close, ‘‘but she would escape and do this and that’’.
An animal control officer with NPDC told Wilson in a message there were complaints about the pig being a nuisance.
But Wilson disagreed. He said people had no problem with her, and some often fed her.
However, NPDC had received complaints about gardens getting ripped up.
And the situation turned into ‘‘a witch hunt’’, Wilson said. ‘‘Everyone seemed to think it was all right to just kill it.’’
While Wilson said the freeroaming pig had become less friendly, she was not ‘‘a wild pig’’. He said she was more likely confused and scared.
‘‘The ranger knew it was my pig. I don’t know how he thinks he can just catch it and give it away to someone else.’’
With the help of the public and some mince pies, NPDC animal control caught the sow on Friday morning and announced her transfer to a Stratford farm, to safely live out the rest of her days.
Cheryl McGrath, NPDC’s animal control compliance lead, said Wilson could not be contacted and under the Wild Animal Control Act, ‘‘wild animals aren’t allowed to be turned loose’’.
‘‘We needed to be sure that after we caught the pig that it would be properly cared for, which it will be on this farm.’’