Fort Worth Code Enforcement officers say around 30 feral pigs escaped from a north side meat processing plant Sunday morning. The hogs scattered into a nearby neighborhood to escape the butcher’s block.
Brandon Bennett, the city’s Code Enforcement director, says crews from the city and Beltex/Frontier Meats rounded up 28 of the pigs. Animal control says two or three may still be on the loose.
At least one of the animals charged at code enforcement officers, forcing them to use a tranquilizer gun. The captured pig weighed in at 50 lbs. making it the smallest one caught. Code officers say the pigs they’ve caught weigh between 150 and 350 lbs.
Bennett says eight were caught under a house. Another one was trapped outside of a barbecue restaurant.
Bennett says the animals are mean and armed with tusks.
"Some of them do have tusks, and those tusks can injure somebody," Bennett said. "Just the sheer weight of the animal charging can hurt somebody, and you know, we think of these large animals as ones that stay low to the ground, but when they're charging, they can leap pretty high, up to about four feet."
If you see a feral hog, don't try to catch it, the city says just call 911. Two animal control officers are still patroling the area to deal with hog sightings.
The feral hogs that have been caught by the city are being euthanized because the massive animals are not easy to deal with or transport. Code enforcement officers hope to round up the last two or three hogs on Monday.
In January NBC 5 reported on Frontier Meats of Fort Worth slaughtering feral hogs caught in North Texas. It is one of several feral swine buying stations approved by the Texas Animal Health Commission. The company's website lists wild boar as one of its many products.
