PARKLAND, Wash. – Deputies near Tacoma, Washington were faced with a bizarre situation involving a 600-pound pig this past weekend.
On the afternoon of Saturday, December 16, Pierce County Sheriff’s Department received a 911 call reporting a man with a gun on Golden Given Road East in Parkland. According to the caller, his neighbor was running around his yard with a rifle, trying to shoot a large pig. Numerous shots were reportedly fired.
When deputies arrived, they found a distraught young man outside his house. The man said he was the one trying to shoot the pig and had put his rifle back in his house. The sheriff’s office quoted the man as saying, “…that [the pig] had become too big and was constantly getting out…” so he planned to put it down. But “things had gotten out of control.”
As he went on, the man explained he planned on “humanely” putting the pig down by shooting it between the eyes with a .22-caliber rifle. However, the initial shot didn’t kill the pig. Instead, it began running around the property as the man continued to shoot it at least six times before it finally succumbed to its injuries. The 600-pound pig was found by deputies near an outbuilding in a neighbor’s yard.
The man who fired the shots didn’t have any criminal history, but it was illegal to shoot in the urban area. A neighbor said the man didn’t appear to be shooting recklessly and had the rifle pointed toward the ground throughout the incident.
Police took the man’s rifle for safekeeping. Evidence in the case was forwarded on to the Pierce County District Attorney’s Office, who will consider if criminal charges are warranted against the 20-year-old.
The sheriff’s office wrote, “No forensics or hamicide [sic] detectives were called out.”
The man’s parents arranged for removal of the pig carcass.
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