Animal Care Services finds three little pigs

As recently as 2016, it was fairly rare to find a lost pig on the streets of San Antonio, with barely a half dozen brought in over several years.

So far this fiscal year, however, ACS has recovered at least nine swine.

“It’s symptomatic of a larger illness and that sickness is irresponsibility,” said Animal Care Services spokeswoman Lisa Norwood. “Whether it’s because someone doesn’t obey the law, or because they haven’t educated themselves on the law or they just don’t care either way.”

Last week, ACS officers picked up their third wandering pig in under 10 days.

This time, the call came from San Antonio Police officers, reporting a polkadotted pig trotting up and down Brushy Point Street on the Northwest Side.

ACS officer Bethany Snow arrived at the 9400 block of Brushy Point Street on Wednesday and found police officers had corralled the pig in a backyard in the neighborhood lined with two-story homes.

Snow scanned the pig for a microchip but didn’t find one. As she was writing up the case, a woman stopped by in her car and asked Snow if she had a pig. Snow said she did, in fact, have one on her truck.

The unnamed woman said that her son had been watching the pig for a friend who lived outside of the city limits. Snow told the woman she couldn’t release the animal to her, citing the city’s ordinance that prohibits keeping swine in the city and gave her information on how to claim the pig from ACS.

Snow took the piggy to the ACS livestock pens where the animal’s squeals of protest could be heard as she started to remove him from the truck. Wearing rawhide gloves, Snow fashioned a slip leash out of a rope, placed it around the pig’s neck and led him to his new home.

ACS staff named their newest porcine guest Hamantha.

On the other side of the corral were pens where ACS officers had put two roaming Vietnamese potbellied pigs they found the previous week. Albert Einswine and Tony Porker were found in different parts of the city, trotting around in residential neighborhoods. Einswine has since been relocated to a rescue facility outside the city limits.

Norwood said city and community leaders are working to find a resolution to the problem.

Courtesy / Animal Care Services A spotted pig, Hamantha, was found on a Northwest Side street Wednesday.

Albert Einswine, a Vietnamese potbellied pig, was found wandering a Southside neighborhood.

Tony Porker, also a Vietnamese potbellied, was picked up north of Prue Road on May 31.