CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Update: The Nueces County Sheriff's office is keeping the runaway pig, 'Porkchop,' at the annex and will be holding her until she is adopted since the owner has yet to come and claim her.
The owner has until Sept. 17 to claim her or she will be adopted out or handed over to an animal sanctuary.
Below is the original story before updates.
Animal Control Officer Araceli Salais brings home the bacon every week, but on Monday she got the whole pig after someone's pet pig led a wild chase up and down Alameda Street.
"I was driving right here on Alameda and as soon as I was going to turn I had to like push my breaks hard because the little pig you know pot belly started crossing the road and I didn’t want to run her over," resident Sandi Mattox said.
The pursuit actually began Sunday morning along Deforrest Street near Alameda. Two other Animal Control officers tried to catch the sow but she proved elusive.
But on this Labor Day, instead of resting and taking it easy, 3NEWS sat with one family at Incarnate Word Academy who had spotted the pig. Marissa and Jordan Fowler luckily had some chicken feed in their car and that was enough to keep the bristle-haired swine from running away for a while.
Then, 3NEWS called animal control and when they showed up, the pot-bellied pig decided it was time to have some real fun and took off running as one of the officers tried to lasso her.
She headed straight for Alameda Street, luckily slowing down before reaching the road with oncoming traffic.
Eventually, the officer's big roundup attracted the attention of a number of people who joined the pig posse. One of those folks was Quinton Hall who did his best to corral the little pork chop.
"I love animals, my grandma is an RN nurse at Driscoll Hospital, so I just helped out, yeah I like animals," he said. "It was pretty fun and I had my little brother with me. He said he was faster than me to chase him and he couldn’t catch them. But, it was all fun."
While Quinton was leading the chase in and out of Alameda traffic, another man parked his car in the middle of the street and gave chase as well. Eventually, the miniature pig gave up and officer Salais carried her back to the truck.
The pig was overheated and sizzling hot, so she needed some cold air conditioning.
Animal Control said after they got her cooled down they were going to drop the pig off at the Sheriff's annex where hopefully she will be picked up by her owner within 15 days or be rehomed.
Unfortunately the other pig on the run in the neighborhood was found dead under one of the homes.
But for the little female pig, she luckily had enough people involved in that chase to keep her alive and well.