ISHPEMING TOWNSHIP (AP) — A family in Upper Michigan is upset after a state Department of Natural Resources officer fatally shot their pet potbelly pig while it was on the loose.
Brandy Savelle and Tony Gervasi said they got the pig named Caesar about two years ago and had been training the animal to be outside.
Recently, they posted on Facebook that the pig was missing and followed his tracks to where the animal had been shot.
The shooting, which happened on state land, was permitted because the animals can carry disease and damage property, WLUC-TV reported.
The officer believed it was a feral pig, since it had no identifying marks to distinguish him as a pet, the DNR said.
“I want to make it very clear that it’s never, ever, ever the department’s position that we want to shoot people’s pets,” said Peter Wright, a law supervisor for the DNR.
Wright said that if the officer “had any inkling it was a pet he absolutely wouldn’t have shot it.”
“But at that point he didn’t know that and he was just doing his job,” Wright said.
- Posted April 13, 2015
- Tweet This | Share on Facebook
Family upset after DNR officer shoots pet peg
headlines Macomb
- Working to help restore no-fault safeguards
- Nessel announces new DAG opioid settlement website
- Experts to discuss AI, privacy, pregnancy post-Dobbs and more at ABA meeting
- MSHDA Board approves modification to Housing and Community Development Fund in March meeting
- Visa, Mastercard settle long-running antitrust suit over swipe fees with merchants
headlines National
- 50 Years of Service: ABA has been a ‘stalwart ally’ for LSC funding
- ACLU and BigLaw firm use ‘Orange is the New Black’ in hashtag effort to promote NY jail reform
- Biden recalls time he bluffed knowledge of torts case and why he changed his mind about civil-trial work
- Lawyers’ ‘barrage of personal attacks’ on opponents started with tissue-box toss, appeals court says
- Longtime prosecutor resigns after judge tosses him from case, citing Perry Mason-type revelations
- 24% of law students expect to work in public service, survey says