Pig escapes from truck on highway, but is shot

March 30, 2009

A pig on its way to a slaughterhouse managed to break free on the Pennsylvania Turnpike's Northeast Extension on Sunday, but paid a painful and deadly price for its brief moments of freedom.

State police at Pocono say a trooper shot and killed the pig on the side of the road, near mile marker 80 in Penn Forrest Township, because the pig was injured and bleeding. Troopers said the pig could have also created havoc on the highway by running back into traffic.

The pig was one of many in a truck headed to a slaughterhouse. One or more of the pigs managed to push a gate away from the truck's body and the one that escaped slipped out and onto the road shortly after 11 a.m. Police said it's unusual for a pig to get out of such a truck.

Police say the truck driver, who will not be cited or charged with any violation, took the dead pig with him.

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