Pataskala, Ohio Police Chief Bruce Brooks tells the Columbus Dispatch he’s not sure what the law says he can do about two pigs whose owner let them out of the yard before they proceeded to chase, viciously maul, and then partially eat a 75 year-old neighbor on Christmas Day.
“If it was a pit bull or a Rottweiler, or name any of the other 15 dogs that are deemed semi aggressive, then we would know the answer right away,” said Brooks, explaining that while the laws in similar situations involving dogs are well-established, he and prosecutors with Licking County are at a loss with the pigs. “But being farm animals, it’s just not something we’ve ever dealt with here.”
The victim, Rebecca Westergaard, had been getting ready to visit her niece that morning when the pigs cornered her somewhere on her property in the rural stretch outside of Columbus. Brooks called the case a “horrible, horrible situation,” but could not share further information as the case is still under investigation, adding that the department will share more once Westergaard’s full autopsy results are completed in four to six weeks. It’s not clear from the article where the two porkers are currently, as in if they’re at the pound or what. Their owner has yet to be publicly identified, much less charged under whatever sort of negligence or manslaughter a dog owner in a similar case would have been hit with, after allowing the savage predation to have been inflicted on Westergaard.