A pig on the loose hunting for apples in a suburban street gave its owner the runaround and surprised householders this morning.
The porker was spotted truffling around on manicured lawns for the Autumn bounty in Bearlands, Wotton-under-Edge at around 10am by resident Rich Montgomery.
“He ate one off my lawn and to be honest looked pretty well fed,” said Rich on Facebook group I Love Wotton. “The owner was out looking for him and thanked me for keeping an eye on him. I was calling the RSPCA as was another neighbour who came out.
While sightings of feral boar which have bred from escaped farmed stock are common in the Forest of Dean, sightings of pigs on the loose are few and far between.
In July, sightings of what was initially believed to have been a wild boar turned out to be an escaped pig in Gloucester, and in 1998 two pigs nicknamed The Tamworth Two escaped from slaughterhouse and were tracked by a pair of Nailsworth, Stroud butchers.
That story was followed by all national media and the pigs were saved and bought by a national newspaper, and they lived to a ripe old age in retirement.