“Over the moon” owners of a 20-stone pig said they thought she was dead before the animal was found 40 miles from home at a mining site.
Two-year-old Gertie was found wandering around at the old Llanharan opencast mining site in Rhondda Cynon Taf, a long way from home in Newport, south Wales.
Owner Holly suspects the pig was nicked, because it was missing for two days before being found on Saturday, January 29.
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“I sobbed when I saw her I just burst into tears, I didn’t expect to find her alive,” Holly told the BBC.
(Image: Facebook)
“If she was alive I expected her to be injured but she’s OK.
“It’s appalling. Who takes a pig, maybe hides her, and dumps her 40 miles away?”
Rattled Holly said she plans on reporting a robbery to the police.
“They can’t just take livestock and get away with it.
“She’s just so big and so heavy – the only way she would have been there was if she was transported,” she said.
Holly’s family searched for the pig, a kune kune pig with black and white patchy fur, for hours when it was seen to be missing, on Thursday.
After a social media appeal, someone told Holly that they saw the pig running across the top of the Llanharan opencast mine.
“It took me 45 minutes to get there. She was exhausted when I found her, she was confused. We had to walk a mile and a half, she followed me back to the car,” Holly said.
“I am worried now and I’ve got to lock her in. Why would somebody do that? It’s so much effort.”
Holly said Gertie “thinks she’s a dog”, but she might need to re-consider giving the pig free roam of the family farm.
Holly had told the South Wales Argus that Gertie “is like a family member” and that she had the animal since she was a piglet.
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