Roaming pigs elude capture in Wayne for more than a week

Despite efforts to catch them, four pigs remain on the loose in the Wayne area.

"A live trap has been set up in the area," Wayne Police Chief Tim Roberts said in an email on Thursday. "We continue to receive sightings and attempts have been made to corral them into a fenced-in area with no luck. A larger group of people is being put together to be available so they can be guided to an enclosure."

The pigs have been on the loose for more than a week. They had initially been seen around the western portion of Army Trail Road from approximately Robin Lane to Fox Glen Drive. Roberts is still hopeful the pigs can be caught sooner rather than later.

"We still feel confident that we will be able to catch them in due time," he said.

Kelly Owens, founder/president of Wayne-based Hands & Hooves Riding, Rescue & Rehabilitation, has joined in the efforts to capture the pigs. Hands & Hooves is located on Army Trail Road in the vicinity of where the pigs have been seen.

"Somebody called me and said these pigs are right around the corner from you," Owens said last Friday. "I am also a humane investigator with the Department of Agriculture, so I get a lot of calls about loose animals. My job now is to just try to catch them, which is going to prove hard because they don't seem to be very trusting of people."

One of the reasons it has been hard to catch them is because they are fast.

"They can take off and run like a dog," Owens said.

She also contacted the nonprofit organization Chicagoland Pig Rescue. If the pigs are caught and the owner comes forth to claim them, they would be given back if it is proven they come from a good home, Owens said.

If that doesn't happen, Chicagoland Pig Rescue would take ownership of the pigs, she said.

"And then they would put them in a foster home and get them adopted out," Owens said. "But we have to catch them first."