By ALEXANDER SIMONE

Staff writer

Marion County law enforcement have been called upon to coral loose animals several times over the last week — a trend that may have started when two pigs escaped their pen Aug. 27 in Marion.

The same pigs have been reported running amok several times since then, and police chief Clinton Jeffrey thinks it’s because they have been on the lam the whole time.

“I don’t think they’ve ever been back in a pen,” he said. “I think they’ve just been out since last Wednesday night, I believe.”

The pigs haven’t been much trouble in Marion, beyond uprooting the occasional garden, Jeffrey said.

“It’s the end of gardening season, so nobody had been really upset about that,” he said. “That would be our biggest threat, is them damaging property.”

The owner, who lives in the 600 block of N. Cedar St., has made several attempts to catch the animals. Jeffrey said the owner even made attempts to rope them.

A tranquilizer gun might be a possibility, Jeffrey said.

“We’d at least be able to catch them, but then we’re still at that impasse where we don’t know what we’ll do with them,” he said.

Police need justification to euthanize animals, but there have not been any incidents that would warrant killing the pigs, Jeffrey said.

“We’ve not had any reports that they’ve been aggressive,” he said. “If that were the case or they were substantially damaging property, we might step up our efforts to end their reign.”

The pigs may have expanded their range. They were reported in a resident’s yard near Elm and Sherman Sts. on Tuesday morning. The pair evaded capture by running into the woods separating Elm St. and Luta Creek.

Jeffrey has not been spared of the pigs’ romping either, as they made multiple trips through his yard on N. Cedar St.

“They popped up in my yard a couple times, but they always were there and then gone,” he said.

Two horses and a llama also escaped their owners last week, reported at 7:34 p.m. Saturday on K-15 south of 170th Rd.

One driver had to stop with his flashing lights on because the animals were crossing back and forth across the highway and almost hit his vehicle, according to police scanner reports.

The animals continued north to 170th Rd., then turned off K-15. They were corralled by their owner and transported back to pasture at 8:16 p.m.