By KRYSTAL SLATEN
May 13, 2008
MITCHELL — The hunt is on for Bruce the pig. Bruce is a black pot-bellied pig, and he got loose Saturday night in Mitchell. Police officers captured the pig, let him loose and recaptured him. He was being kept at the city’s street garage and then city officials believe he was picked up by a representative of an animal rescue center in Hope. Now his owner, Cheryl Wright, wants him back, or at least the chance to say goodbye.
“He would never bother anyone,” Wright said. “He was a pet. We fed him Kibble & Bits for crying out loud. He played with our basset hound. Bruce was my baby — he was the sweetest thing.” Wright said Bruce’s chain was broken when it was mowed over. It was wired back together, but she assumes he was too strong for the new wiring. He got loose Saturday night when she was out of town.
The argument, however, is if Bruce is considered a pet or livestock. That’s because livestock is not allowed in the city limits. And city officials believe Bruce is livestock. Matter of fact, Wright said, Street Commissioner Steve Burton visited her about a month ago when Bruce got loose that time to let her know of the ordinance that bans livestock in the city limits. Burton said, “He was easy to capture. He followed you around like a little beagle hound. ... But he has been loose and causing problems in that neighborhood at least three times.”
And a pig is a pig, Burton said. “He’s not a pig, the way you think of a big ol’ pig,” Wright said. “He’s like a dog. Whenever someone comes to the door, he runs up to greet them. And he stands in the window, watching cars go by.” Wright, however, is more upset that city officials sent her pig away without her knowledge. “They knew he was my pig,” she said. “If he’s in a good home out in the country, where he has space to roam with good people, then that’s OK. The fact is, though, that (city officials) gave my pig away and I never had any say in it.”
As of this morning, the fate of Bruce was still up in the air. Mayor Dan Terrell jokingly said he was putting out an APB, or an all-pig bulletin, out on the animal, and said he promised Wright he would find the animal. Wright just wants to see him again and be assured he’s in a good home. “He is just so sweet,” Wright said. “He’s a good, little pig.”
Times-Mail Staff Writer Krystal Slaten welcomes comments and suggestions at 277-7264 or by e-mail at krystal@tmnews.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment