Stranded Pigs Shot To Save Iowa Levees

Nearly A Dozen Pigs Escaped Farm For Higher Ground, But Became Stuck On Sandbags

(AP)  Luck ran out for about a dozen pigs who escaped their flooded farm, swam to safety through raging floodwaters and scrambled atop a sandbag levee in southeastern Iowa.

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.

[extremophil]

You survive a flood, swim to safety, climb a sandbag levee.......and get shot. A pigs life just ain''t worth livin.

[thewarning2]

All that good meat gone to waste!!!

[redstripe11]

Awww, I can''t believe they shot those poor pigs that were going to be turned into Pork Chops anyway.

Now the price of bacon will probably go up.

[trenticus-2009]

THOSE SWINE! Just kidding...

[crazycwp]

those hogs were swimming around in contaminated flood waters, so GOOD MEAT was not wasted. so sorry they had to be put down, but people and their properties are more important than hogs. And if you''ve ever been to a commercial hog farm, you would know that killing these hogs was alot more merciful than sending them to another hog farm to suffer in the conditions they are raised in.

[bbirdsr71]

this little piggy went the market
this little piggy went to the levee
this little piggy got shot
this little piggy went we-we-we-we all the way home

[irliberal]

Typical Iowa thinking. Hey - our levees are weak! Hey! We have some guns! Hey, lets shoot the pigs!

Morons, absolute morons.

[vanitydog]

Obviously once again the proper autorities were not called prior to blatently shooting the animals. It''s a common thing with ignorant hillbillies who dont know any better. There are 100''s of animal activists who would have come to help get them out of there, but the excuse is always "we had to do something FAST, so just kill them". Police do it,as well as city officials. there is no reason for it, just ignorance and lack of God.

[nlm2383]

Some of you need to give your animal love ranting a rest... They were pigs, they were going to be slaughtered for meat anyways. Like crazycwp said, they were in contaminated water. Even if they were rescued, they wouldn''t have served their purpose and probably would have been killed anyways.

[nthsouth]

Oh no! They should''ve let them weaken the levee so the town would flood and everyone would lose everything they have worked their whole lives for. STUPID PIGS!

[dsr57]

Typical Iowa thinking. Hey - our levees are weak! Hey! We have some guns! Hey, lets shoot the pigs!

Morons, absolute morons.


Posted by IRLiberal
----------------------------------------------------

WOW, you really must be Dumb.

Pigs uproot the ground when they go to looking for food. So if they are on top of a levee digging around you run the risk on weakening it.

Go eat some granola, tree hugger. To bad your house isn''t right in front of it

[irliberal]

LOL oh yea, the pigs were gonna break the levee!! Yeah.

Give a bumpkin a gun and a disaster, and the bumpkin will find a way to use the gun even though it doesn''t help address the disaster in any way.

I''m sure they felt better after they shot the pigs, which after all, was the only goal.

[rushlimpdrug]

Pigs?

Looks like your typical Iowan female.

[pandora1054]

Wow! A few pigs were killed. Animals die everyday. Find another cause to get on your high horse about - like cancer or feeding the hungry or earthquake victims. Poor pigs, how people who need a helping hand?

[akpals]

First of all Iowa is pretty flat, so "hillbillies" would be a completely inacurate term for us.
Secondly, the article reports that the state vet. and other agencies were caled, I guess that pretty much covers those "proper authorities" you are whining about.
Third, after raising hogs for years I would love to stand back and have a good laugh at you while you and your "proper authorities" tried to capture those poor little piggies, while maintaining the levee. Or maybe it would have been better to let a town be destroyed.

[georgew1956]

makes me want to call the meat locker and order a pig
just the thought of those tenderloins makes me hungry.
good luck to all you iowans

[kzimmerm1]

If the owners of the pig farm had acted responsibly during evacuation, then the pigs would not have had to suffer as they did. Regardless of their status in the food chain...they were needlessly slaughtered because that was the easy way out.

[dsr57]

LOL oh yea, the pigs were gonna break the levee!! Yeah.

Give a bumpkin a gun and a disaster, and the bumpkin will find a way to use the gun even though it doesn''''t help address the disaster in any way.

I''''m sure they felt better after they shot the pigs, which after all, was the only goal.

Posted by IRLiberal
----------------------------------------------------

Yeah, just like give a hoodrat a disaster and flat screen TV and they find a way to blame the Govt because the didn''t carry it for them. At least the "Bumkins" didn''t decide to loot their hometowns..hmmmmmmm. where did that happen again??? I think it was in the CITY somewhere

[dsr57]

If the owners of the pig farm had acted responsibly during evacuation, then the pigs would not have had to suffer as they did.

Posted by kzimmerm1
----------------------------------------------------

Oh, you mean act responsible by leaving before the flood came and run the chance of NOT drowning???

I guess they should have stayed, then they could have blamed to Gov''t because they didn''t evacuate them, and live in a FEMA trailer for five years B!tich about how bad they got it

Re!ard !

[deacon20081]

Question; Are the Police and Military going house to house confiscating all fire arms from home owners like they did in New Orleans yet?

[haoli25]

Couldn''t they just have lured them out with donuts?

[barbaraf4]

Why weren''t these animals killed at the beginning of their 9 mile journey from the farm to high ground on the sandbags? They would have been saved the exhaustion and spared the hope of reaching safety.

[texanforlogi]

Poor pigs!

Iowans: my prayers are with y''all.

[vanitydog]

Everyone has to be some sort of hero when it comes to killing animals. Take a look at last month when city officials and police ran after a black bear in Grand Rapids, Michigan and tried to shoot the bear with bullets,( because of lack of funding for tranquilizer guns), then after it was shot 4 times, they just ran it over with the truck, the guy who did it sounding all proud and everything to the media like he was some GREAT SAVIOR for the city, but all he did was make a total *** out of himself. Well, compare this to the same idea, city officials saying "the lives of the people were at stake!", like he has some final word on "people''s lives" just so he could get the guys out to use their guns and test their target practice. And OF COURSE, use the media to do it too. Yes, we hear you, smart city officials; you too are a group of complete *****.

[hbevis]

Posted by IRLiberal at 09:07 AM : Jun 19, 2008
Posted by Vanitydog at 09:22 AM : Jun 19, 2008
Posted by DSR57 at 09:41 AM : Jun 19, 2008
Posted by DaVicar2 at 09:45 AM : Jun 19, 2008
Posted by kzimmerm1 at 10:10 AM : Jun 19, 2008

These post show that some people have no idea about what to do with an animal in distress.
There are several post saying that the proper people were talked to before any hogs were killed.
None of you have any idea what it is like to try and hold a hog of any size. Even a small pig
is hard to hold. They are all muscle and you can''t get them to do anything other than eat.
Trying and hold a large hog is just about impossible if not impossible

My option of PETA is 10 points below "ZERO", "0"......

So, if all you people are so smart just go to a hog farm somewhere and have a ball holding a
large hog or two and we will be standing back having a good laugh.

And to DaVicar2 and your statement: And people who get x-rays, but dont have the guts to dig up their own uranium...
x-rays and uranium have zero to do with each other. Uranium is a radioactive element and puts off gamma rays.
An x-ray machine puts off radiation because of a high voltage beam hitting a piece of metal. Normally Tantalum is used but other metals are used as well. If fact most all metal will produce x-rays when hit with a high voltage electron beam. That is how an electron microscope identifies an unknown piece of metal.

[akpals]

Hey Deacon
No cops comin to steal our firearms yet. Oh, but that could be because there hasn''t been any looting. Haven''t you read the posts? We are keeping ourselves amused by shooting those poor, poor pigs! It''s pretty fun too ! You know, farmers just love to see everything they have worked their whole lives for washed down the river! We just love to see those crops it took weeks to plant, and those animals we have raised to feed the world drown. Yup, that''s how we pass the down time around here, just shootin animals to see how much profit we can throw away.

[pgflorida1]

They do the same thing down here in FL with alligators and bears. We encroach on the animals territory and then when they come looking for food they get shot. People don''t get that the animals are just trying to survive, not terrorize us. Here those poor pigs were able to survive something pretty awful
only to get shot for their efforts. Like someone else said, there are plenty of animal rights groups that would have rescued those animals if given the chance.

[oneworldusa]

Bacon, anyone?

[rushlimpdrug]

"He noted that out of about 36,000 pigs in the Oakville area, officials estimated that only a thousand or so were left behind"


Now that''s no way to refer to the townspeople.

[minnick8-2009]

Deacon,

The ultimate goal where firearms are concerned is that only the military, police, CIA, FBI, and Secret Service will have them. Oops, criminals will also have them.

People who want guns banned apparently want the same thing.

Teenagers who go around shooting people for sport were apparently never taught any morals or values. Those same thugs will find a way to administer terror when they can no longer obtain guns legally.

I can''t believe a story about shooting pigs to save levies made the front page. I can''t believe people feel sorry for the pigs.

Our society is upside down and backwards.

[minnick8-2009]

If the owners of the pig farm had acted responsibly during evacuation, then the pigs would not have had to suffer as they did.

Posted by kzimmerm1

By acting responsibly, would you mean evacuating before the flood waters arrived? That would mean, I guess, that since all that water is headed downstream toward New Orleans, then it would follow that those residents should be evacuating? I wonder if they are?

[bckrd1]

So many animals, two and four legged, have suffered from this horrible tragedy. Had our infrastructure needs been tended to long ago we may not have had to go through this. It is time to stop squandering money on pet projects and start being good stewards of our land and resources.

[hbevis]

Deacon,

The ultimate goal where firearms are concerned is that only the military, police, CIA, FBI, and Secret Service will have them. Oops, criminals will also have them.

People who want guns banned apparently want the same thing.

Teenagers who go around shooting people for sport were apparently never taught any morals or values. Those same thugs will find a way to administer terror when they can no longer obtain guns legally.

I can''''t believe a story about shooting pigs to save levies made the front page. I can''''t believe people feel sorry for the pigs.

Our society is upside down and backwards.

Posted by minnick8 at 11:10 AM : Jun 19, 2008

VERY WELL SAID...........

[dsr57]

Posted by DSR57


These post show that some people have no idea about what to do with an animal in distress.
There are several post saying that the proper people were talked to before any hogs were killed.
None of you have any idea what it is like to try and hold a hog of any size. Even a small pig
is hard to hold. They are all muscle and you can''''t get them to do anything other than eat.
Trying and hold a large hog is just about impossible if not impossible

Posted by hbevis
-----------------------------------------------------

Ok, I''m not really sure what you are getting at here. Are you saying that they should have been saved or shot?

[hwy71so]

When and where is the BBQ?

[dsr57]

If the owners of the pig farm had acted responsibly during evacuation, then the pigs would not have had to suffer as they did.

Posted by kzimmerm1

By acting responsibly, would you mean evacuating before the flood waters arrived? That would mean, I guess, that since all that water is headed downstream toward New Orleans, then it would follow that those residents should be evacuating? I wonder if they are?

Posted by minnick8
------------------------------------------------------

I think you and I made about the same point

[hbevis]

Posted by DSR57 at 11:19 AM : Jun 19, 2008

Shot as I don''t see anyway to handle hogs this big.
Working in and around water and sand bags,etc. a lot of sand bags would have gotten cut, torn, etc. You could have shot them with a tranquilizer gun, but what would you have done with them after that? Bring in a Helicopter to airlift them out? That would have cost more than the hogs were worth?!

No reflection on City people but they should just keep quite when something comes up. The people in Iowa have lost everything they have and law enforcement is working to the limit to try and keep order and help anyone and everyone in this very bad ordeal. The farmer that has lost his hogs has lost his income.

[navyjimfl]

PETA needs to sue over this outrage

[slim1h2o]

When and where is the BBQ?

Posted by Hwy71So at 11:21 AM : Jun 19, 2008

Right now, and apparently in Kingston Iowa.

Don''t forget the beer and slaw. Hushpuppies would be nice, but not required.

[hbevis]

Reading the the several post from all of you PETA leaning people, you all have no idea what it takes to handle a farm animal of any size. The hogs would have done lots of damage to the levy, period. There is no telling how many holes were poked in the sand bags before they were shot.

CAN''T YOU PEOPLE UNDERSTAND THAT THE PEOPLE IN "IOWA" ARE FIGHTING FOR THEIR LIVES AND LIVELIHOOD? SO WHAT IF THE LAW HAD TO KILL A FEW HOGS!!!!!!!!

[bot5plus]

What about the fat obese pigs waddling around putting the sand bags on top of each other. Should have shot them to?

[reedtaz73]

I thought I would read a story on crooked cops after clicking this link.

[feelfreee4u]

The problem wasn''t that we killed the pigs, it''s was HOW we did it. You see, if you just shoot these fat things, they fall down in the river and rot in the sun and pollute the river. That''s why for years I always advocate flamethrowers for this job. With the flamethrower, the pig is flash-roasted, on the spot, all the way to the core. No viruses or bacteria to pollute the river. No meat spoilage at all. The rampaging pig is instantly stopped in his tracks, and is ready to be eaten by all the workers and civilians nearby. This method has been done many times before (Moline 1967, Ocala 1982, Tacoma 1993, Calgary 1999, more), and every time it has been a great success. Flamethrowers. One word. Don''t forget it.

[splintershop]

what I want to know is if the meat was put to good use, such as feeding the families that were victimized by the flooding and are unable to provide for their children,or thrown away.I think if this happened it will be justified.

[shanev137]

So when are all the naked girls from PETA going to show up and protest?

[minnick8-2009]

When and where is the BBQ?

Posted by Hwy71So

I know you are being sarcastic, but the BBQ is right after you go to the store and buy properly preserved meats. Sorry, but pigs left as road kill in a flood will make good pickings for the buzzards.

[dsr57]

Posted by DSR57 at 11:19 AM : Jun 19, 2008

Shot as I don''''t see anyway to handle hogs this big.
Working in and around water and sand bags,etc. a lot of sand bags would have gotten cut, torn, etc. You could have shot them with a tranquilizer gun, but what would you have done with them after that? Bring in a Helicopter to airlift them out? That would have cost more than the hogs were worth?!

No reflection on City people but they should just keep quite when something comes up. The people in Iowa have lost everything they have and law enforcement is working to the limit to try and keep order and help anyone and everyone in this very bad ordeal. The farmer that has lost his hogs has lost his income.


Posted by hbevis
------------------------------------------------------

Then why did you add me to that list of people?? I was saying they should have been shot also??

[slim1h2o]

This is global warming....expect more....

Posted by nrgmizer at 11:40 AM : Jun 19, 2008

More? More what? Snow storms in July? Rain storms/Hurricanes in the wintertime? 80 degrees in the wintertime? Is that your global warming?

Sounds more like climate "change" to me.

But lets spend trillions on the warming aspect anyways. It''ll make us feel better.

[minnick8-2009]

Flamethrowers. One word. Don''''t forget it.

Posted by FeelFreee4U

There were flame throwers out in the middle of the flood area where the pigs were shot?

[superocean1]

The same yokels who shot the pigs are from the same gene pool that build farms too close to a big river. The river is doing what rivers always do and the pigs were fighting to get to safety.
When will stupid people realize that they should not build in flood prone areas or in Calif wildernesses that get big fires each year.
I feel sorry for the innocent pigs.