The residents of a small town in Connecticut are fed up with an unruly band of stray pigs that have been roaming the neighborhood, destroying lawns and allegedly forcing one man to shell out tens of thousands of dollars to repair the damage.
Sterling locals blame the damage on Radical Roots Farm, which practices regenerative farming, claiming they haven’t been properly fencing in their swine, The Wall Street Journal reports. In a lawsuit filed in February, neighbors complain that the animals have caused them emotional distress and loss of sleep.
“People are pissed,” Victoria Robinson-Lewis, the town’s zoning-enforcement officer, told the Journal. “They were donating like cupcakes and apples and greens to try and catch these little suckers.”
The lawsuit’s lead plaintiff, Michael Grenier, told the outlet that he had spent much of last year dealing with the farm’s pigs, like the time one rutted and dug up his yard. He alleges that the farm’s animals have caused over $23,000 in damage to his lawn, and on one particularly bad day that he’s dubbed “the aporkalpse,” he counted 22 stray pigs in his yard.
Mr Grenier told local outletWTNH in November that the owners of Radical Roots Farm — who have claimed they’re being unfairly maligned — offered to help after the first couple of times the pigs destroyed his yard.
“The third time and beyond — no response,” the Sterling resident said.
Mr Grenier called upon Robinson-Lewis to help him place bait, and while they caught five of the pigs, the livestock have only continued to be a scourge on the community, the outlet reports.
Cows from the farm have also wreaked havoc on other neighbours’ property, destroying corn crops, contaminating hay bales and grain with excrement, trampling gardens and eating chicken feed, according to CT Insider.
The owners of the farm have reportedly been slapped with more than two dozen tickets and 140 roaming charges since last summer. They’ve allegedly told officers that neighbours were baiting the animals, and his fence was also damaged due to a boulder from next door, a police report seen by the WSJ said.
A hearing regarding the charges is scheduled for late June, with the owner pleading not guilty to many of the citations.
First Selectman Lincoln Cooper, Sterling’s top elected official, told the outlet that there is “frustration all around” in the community, and worries that the loose pigs could go feral and make the woods near the farm their home.
A spokeswoman from the Connecticut Department of Agriculture told the outlet that an investigation is still underway but declined to comment further.
The US Department of Agriculture also said they set up cameras in December to look for wild animals, said they reported no sightings.
The Independent has contacted Radical Roots Farm for comment.
