# Stray Potbelly Pigs - HELP!



## Bunnylady (Aug 21, 2010)

Yesterday, my family awoke to the sight of these guys (and yes, they are guys) in our yard:







They are a bit shy, and keep popping in and out of the woods. Our place (7 acres)  is on the back edge of a pretty extensive suburb, behind us are a couple of square miles' worth of woods. I figure these two either rooted their way out of someone's backyard, or they were dumped (leaning toward the latter). Either way, I don't feel we can just ignore them. We are not going to shoot them (after all, they may belong to someone who cares about them), so any advice on how we go about capturing them?


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## apdan (Aug 23, 2010)

Are they friendly at all??? Mine loves just about anything a big pig loves.... Corn, Zuchini, cucumbers, bread.... maybe try that. Or another option would be to call animal control, they may be able to come help you. Do you have a pen where you could put them after you caught them? If they are semi-friendly they may just follow you into a pen. But, just like a big pig they can RUN and they are STUBBORN  
Good luck and be careful!


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## jodief100 (Aug 23, 2010)

Whatever you do you should do it quickly.  Pigs are VERY destructive.


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## Bunnylady (Aug 23, 2010)

We haven't seen any sign of the pigs today, not even fresh signs of their rooting, so I hope that means they've gone home. I do have a place where we could confine them, if they return, but getting them in there would be the tricky part. They only let us get within about 10 feet before they got a bit restless, since they are intact boars, I wasn't going to push it!

My experience with Animal Control leads me to think they'd be no help at all. If you call about a problem animal, their first question will be, "has anyone been bitten?" If the answer is no, they may get back to you in a few hours, or not. They expect you to confine the animal, they won't come to something just wandering around. For a small fee, they would provide me with traps large enough to catch these guys, but I'd have to go get them and set them up myself. They are always whining about being underfunded and understaffed (most likely quite true), so something like a couple of pigs wandering in and out of the woods wouldn't be top priority with them. A bear or alligator wandering the streets downtown (both of which have happened in the last few years) gets much more of their attention, possibly because the local TV stations are downtown, as well!


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