Garbage gobbling porker put down
Published 12:00 am Friday, July 30, 2004
Suffolk News-Herald
One piggy didn’t quite make it to the market.
Early Wednesday around 6:23 am, police shot and killed an estimated 500-pound boar hog which had reportedly been on the loose in Chuckatuck for almost two months.
Owner McKinley Holloway said the hog broke free as he tried to load it onto a truck.
&uot;He busted out the sides of the shoot,&uot; explained Holloway. &uot;He was so large we couldn’t stop it.&uot;
For weeks now, residents in the vicinity of Godwin Boulevard and the Hawk Lane area have reported sightings of the large swine, in some cases plundering through trash receptacles.
The hog initially retreated to the woods upon escaping, and Holloway and his brother had been unsuccessful until Wednesday catching up with it.
On Tuesday, Holloway said he received approval from Suffolk Police and Animal Control to shoot the pig. Suffolk Police Lt. Debbie George confirmed that an officer shot the hog Wednesday morning in the 5700 block of Hawk Lane. Dispatchers received a call that the large hog was getting into the residents’ trash.
There were no plans to feast off the hog considering its size, said Holloway. The hog had been mated with other pigs on several occasions, but because it had not been castrated, he added, the pork would not prove good.
&uot;It was a big boar. The meat would be musty,&uot; explained Holloway.
The hog was laid to rest in Holloway’s back yard.