This Little Piggy Went Stark Raving Mad

Ron Sallee and Jennifer Holloway say they were forced to use a gun when all other options failed to calm their once-loveable, suddenly belligerent pot-bellied pig, Lucy.<

Police were unable to help, and Lucy’s angry demeanor continued after an animal-control officer gave up trying to capture the pig.

Sallee and Holloway were left to silence their pet, which squealed no more after a single shot was fired.

Sallee said his fiancee will long remember Lucy’s rides in the car, walks in the park and greetings after work.

“Anywhere she’d go the pig went with her,” Sallee said. “That wasn’t the same sweet little piggy we’ve known for a year.”

Lucy, a 50-pound, black pot-bellied pig, was a gift from Sallee’s mother to his fiancee.

The pig apparently snapped when friends came to visit the couple’s apartment with their dog Saturday night.

Lucy seemed upset about the visiting canine and soon began trying to bite her owners.

At one point, Holloway was trapped on a bed while Sallee, 29, tried to defend himself and protect his fiancee from another snap of Lucy’s jaws.

“I grabbed the baseball bat and thwacked her upside the melon,” Sallee said.

The blow failed to stop Lucy, and Sallee pushed the animal onto his apartment’s balcony and barricaded the door.

A police officer was flagged down on the street, but refused to approach the animal, which was on the balcony destroying a car carrier that had been stored there.

The Humane Society was called to help capture Lucy, but Sallee knew holding down the hog would be akin to trying to capture a greased pig.

“I’ll tell you right now that pig is a lot stronger and faster than you can ever fathom to the furthest extreme,” he said. “They are tougher than nails.”

An animal-control officer used a catch pole to try to control Lucy, but she struggled free from the noose each time. The worker finally abandoned the case, but his departure failed to calm Lucy.

Sallee, who speculated that some type of stroke caused the animal to go wild, said he spent 45 minutes trying to think of what to do and finally, five hours after he had barricaded Lucy on the balcony, settled on the gun.

Lucy, gone but not forgotten, was buried minutes later.