That's what animal control officials believe was the beginning of a five-mile, morning-long journey Thursday for a burly pig that escaped from a nearby farm and trotted down to the Northway. State Police, Saratoga County Sheriff's officers, officials from the state Department of Agriculture and Markets and local animal control officers convened at the corner of Round Lake Road, near Exit 11, to corral the wayward swine that was first spotted just before 7:45 a.m.
Police watched over the 650-pound porker for hours before it was eventually taken away. Motorists slowed down during their morning commute to gawk and snap pictures of the unexpected scene, which briefly closed the exit as the pig was lured into a volunteer's trailer. At one point, the pig feasted on sliced white bread provided by a passerby and even took a nap on the grass.
The escapee was to be taken to nearby Lakeside Farms in Ballston Lake until its owner was located, said Dominic Refino, the Town of Malta's animal control officer. However, an employee at Lakeside Farms said the pig was reunited with his owner before it reached the farm. Refino, and State Police said the owner lives on a farm near Eastline and Sweet roads and keeps two pigs as pets. The pig's owner, who was not publicly identified, could not be reached for comment.
Refino said the pig was not injured during the incident, which took place five miles from the pig's home. It had sneaked out of its pen during the early morning hours, and its owner had been out most of the day looking for it, officials said.
"It's shocking for a pig to have traveled that far," Refino said.
The pig was first seen sauntering near Round Lake Road around 7:45 a.m. It crossed through some backyards and even trotted near the parking lot of a newly-opened Hannaford Supermarket, troopers said.
"People at Hannaford were calling us saying, 'Yeah, I'm in the parking lot here right now ... and a giant pig just walked by," Trooper Mark Cepiel said.
Around 9:45 a.m., animal control and police officers tried to lasso the pig, although that only seemed to agitate the previously docile hog. When a rope was tied around its waist, the angry boar began to screech and buck wildly, at one point even throwing its entire body high into the air like a whale breaching out of the ocean.
It wasn't until about 45 minutes later that the pig calmed down and was carefully led into a trailer on loan from a friend of a trooper at the scene. Officers were glad to have the incident end.
"Close the gate!" a trooper shouted when the pig was safely inside the trailer. "Close it!"
(Times Union - Sept 13, 2012)
