SACRAMENTO, CA (KMAX/CNN) - A rescue group is under fire for removing pigs from an island where many people say they were living happily.
A video shows non-profit animal rights group Farm Sanctuary arriving to rescue the Delta Island pigs, first placed on the island years ago to eat overgrown vegetation. The pigs greeted the group at the island shore.
“All we’re trying to do is just get them to a safe place,” said Farm Sanctuary Director Susie Coston.
She said the organization received a tip that the pigs were in trouble, abandoned and starving. Coston said the island’s owner signed papers allowing her to remove the pigs.Her 10-person crew brought the pigs to the UC Davis Animal Hospital for examination.
“We went through all the legal channels and we got permission to get them, and we took them in,” Coston said.
But Blair Hake, director of the California Delta Chamber of Commerce, said the rescue is wrong.
“Oh, I definitely think they were stolen,” Hake said of the pigs, He said the community was caring for the pigs.
“They were running free, they were happy, they were fed,” he said.
And there’s another twist in this pig tale: Roger Stevenson says the pigs are rightfully his, and he has called the sheriff.
“And they’re doing some investigating and some follow-up, correspondence, and they’re going to be getting back to me, but I consider this a theft,” Stevenson said.
With an animal rescue and islanders rising up against it, suddenly the Delta community is facing a pig problem.
Some boaters say they have been feeding the pigs for years and even have a Friends of the Pigs on the Delta Facebook page. Farm Sanctuary claims many people abused the pigs by giving them beer and riding them.
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