Family upset after DNR officer shoots pet peg

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.