Two pigs have been captured in West Kelowna after spending the night roaming neighbourhoods and parks. Castanet first received a tip about the loose pigs on Tuesday afternoon when a concerned citizen spotted them in her yard, worried they would be attacked by coyotes come nightfall. Spotted near Mar Jok Elementary Wednesday morning, a number of people and organizations sprung into action, including RCMP, RDCO animal control, the Okanagan Humane Society, Petra’s Pawdicures and Star’s Piggly Wiggly Sanctuary.
Both pigs were secured against a fence surrounded by a soccer net, but when attempting to put them in the back of a van, one escaped and took off running across the park as kids from the nearby school cheered it on. “We ended up catching the first pig really easy in the field. It actually went very smooth and we got him in the van, but the other little guy, he was out.
So probably about 30 minutes of up and down the hills, we ended up getting him in the corner of a yard with a bit of fencing that had broken," said Jacenda Byer of Petra’s Pawdicures. “Once they had the fence over his back, I crawled underneath, grabbed his legs and held on for dear life until more people could get in and help me hold him. And then from there we got him into a crate and into the van.
” Faith Affleck, owner of Star’s Piggly Wiggly Sanctuary, has years of experience caring for pigs and was called in to help wrangle them up. “I was messaged yesterday quite a few times, I was tagged quite a few times on various different Facebook groups in Westbank about two loose pigs,” she said. Byer noted that the students from Mar Jok Elementary were entertained by the show.
"They were cheering hard for him to go piggy go." “It was beautiful. Honestly, we were not impressed with ourselves, but I’m glad it all turned out the way it did and the kids got a good story to go home and tell their parents now," she added.
The two pigs are currently being kept at Star’s Piggly Wiggly Sanctuary where they will be cared for until their rightful owner steps forward..
