KINGSTON, Iowa, June 19, 2008
Stranded Pigs Shot To Save Iowa Levees
Nearly A Dozen Pigs Escaped Farm For Higher Ground, But Became Stuck On Sandbags
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Officials said they killed the pigs over worries that they would weaken the levee. Onlookers said the animals were having a difficult time trying to maneuver their way off of the sandbags. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
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Photo Essay Flood Woes Drift Downriver Residents respond to warnings that up to 30 more levees could overflow along the Mississippi.
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Photo Essay Rivers Overwhelm Midwest String of towns along the Mississippi feel mighty river's wrath; Cedar and Iowa rivers also torment.
Des Moines County sheriff's officials shot the pigs Tuesday, not long after they completed their journey to the levee near Kingston, as much as 9 miles from a farm near Oakville.
Officials said they killed the pigs over worries that they would weaken the levee. Onlookers said the animals were having a difficult time trying to maneuver their way off of the sandbags, and that they scurried back into the water as people approached.
"Basically you cannot have something with a hoof walk on plastic and not poke a hole in the plastic and let water into it," said LeRoy Lippert, chairman of the emergency management commission. "Hogs, they have a tendency to root and that would not have been good either."
He said the state veterinarian and other agencies were consulted, and the 10 to 16 animals euthanized was minimal.
"It happens every day. My gosh, that's what slaughterhouses do - that's how we get bacon and pork chops," Lippert said. "It's just one of the casualties of the flooding situation."
The carcasses were left at the site and treated essentially as road kill, he said.
"You don't get them out of the mud and over the dike when you're worried about people and peoples' property," Lippert said.
He noted that out of about 36,000 pigs in the Oakville area, officials estimated that only a thousand or so were left behind when the floodwaters came through.
"We trucked them as far as 200 miles away to other hog farms so that they would be taken care of," he said.
Louisa County Sheriff Curt Braby said he had heard about the incident, and understood why the pigs needed to be killed.
"They did not want to take a chance on losing a city due to a few hogs," he said.
Jeff Campbell, a farmer carrying sandbags on his four-wheeler, said on Tuesday that he spotted pigs swimming away from the flooded hog farm near Oakville. They were climbing the levee, poking holes in the plastic that covered it, he said.
One tired pig was lying at the bottom of the levee "like a pink sandbag," Campbell said.
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
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See all 110 CommentsI am very sorry that I put your name down. I am sure that I did not read close enough.
Again, I am very sorry.
Henry
Amazing. You are equating pigs lives with human lives. Animals are not even close. Kill the pigs to protect a town...YOU BET, good trade, unfortunate for the pigs.
As far as city or country "onlookers", it doesn''''t matter if you live in the country or the city, the kind of people that stand by and watch HUMANS in need of help and do nothing to help are COWARDS. Which are you?
Posted by edintex at 09:31 PM
Slow down there tex.
I am not equating anything.
Just saying that people will gawk at
any predicament.
Get it?
I know it is a pig.
I have helped enough people-
city and country to understand
your situation.
The pig couldn''t get help.
You can.
Posted by rushlimpdrug at 09:06 PM : Jun 19, 2008
Amazing. You are equating pigs lives with human lives. Animals are not even close. Kill the pigs to protect a town...YOU BET, good trade, unfortunate for the pigs.
As far as city or country "onlookers", it doesn''t matter if you live in the country or the city, the kind of people that stand by and watch HUMANS in need of help and do nothing to help are COWARDS. Which are you?
Caption of photo reads:
"Onlookers said the animals were having a difficult time trying to maneuver their way off of the sandbags."
Very funny!
So all these "onlookers" watched a helpless
pig until someone pulled the trigger.
Then everyone could happily go home.
Turns out country folk are like city folk.
They watch a sad predicament then when
they''re bored and it''s over they go home.
Hey, I think I''ll watch Saddam''s hanging again.
Posted by jboxton
Yeah in hickville, stinkville, pig phux IOwarh rrrahahahahaha!! I can just see the red suspenders and overalls on those geezer''s..
Since so many of these levees FAIL, maybe its time to do something DIFFERENT.
It''s your little boy Sammy.
Come home from Alabammy.
Put on those eggs and hammy,
Mammy!
Posted by SgtRDS-E4 at 04:32 PM : Jun 19, 2008
I guess thats the difference between the two coasts then.
Money wise. I made too much.
I might have made that much,,maybe? But I paid taxes,,and they said if you paid taxes, you''''d get a check.
Posted by slim1h2o at 04:07 PM : Jun 19, 2008
Oh I made less then the limit and didn''t file.
I might have made that much,,maybe? But I paid taxes,,and they said if you paid taxes, you''d get a check.
What are you talking about? Who are you talking about?
How much is too little?
Posted by slim1h2o at 03:56 PM : Jun 19, 2008
About 8 grand married filing seperately.
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