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Dozens of pot belly pigs seized from Dinwiddie County home

Posted at 7:12 PM, May 03, 2013
and last updated 2013-05-03 19:12:56-04

Dinwiddie County, Va. - More than a dozen pot belly pigs were seized from a Dinwiddie County home.

"We saw a bunch of pigs running loose,” says Chief Warden Alvin Langley, Dinwiddie Co. Animal Control.

Investigators say they were abandoned to run free.

"We saw some that were in a corral and there was a donkey there,” says Langley.

The initial call was for animals not being cared for properly.

Dinwiddie County Animal Control Officers say when they arrived on the property 4 weeks ago, the grass was above their knees. It was so high you couldn't even see the pot belly pigs running around on the ground.  In fact they say it looked like the property had been abandoned.

"Just to know that somebody would just let them continue to graze and terrorize the neighborhood, and not do something proper about it, that’s the amazing part,” says Langley.

Farmers and live stock owners have complained about the problem and Langley says dozens more have escaped to nearby federal property.

"Reports from Fort Pickett and other people around the area that there's as many as 70 pot belly pigs just running loose,” says Langley.

Two of the pot belly pigs were adopted and a rescue group is stepping in to help out Animal Control.

The property owner is not at fault, but the person in charge of caring for the animals could soon be facing an animal cruelty charge.