Missing pig to be lured by sow's voice

A voice recording of a female pig was yesterday employed in the latest attempt to capture a Vietnamese pot-bellied pig that has been attacking livestock around Ennis over the past few months.

Co Clare's ISPCA dog warden, Mr Frankie Coote, conducted the search for the elusive pot-bellied pig with the aid of the voice recording over a large area of Ennis yesterday.

He said: "I recorded the voice of the female pig after a man told me that the pot-bellied pig is a young male and is therefore roaming looking for a mate. If we can get the voice recording within a few hundred yards of him, it will flush him out because he is a loner. We will be trying it night and day over the next while.

"Up to now, the pig has attacked livestock and two farmers in the Barefield area on the northern outskirts of Ennis. I can't give any assurances that the animal won't attack or indeed kill somebody," Mr Coote added.

Mr Coote said that from the descriptions he has received, "the pig is as big as a full- bred Labrador and very strong and heavy".

He also said that he has witnessed the pig himself on a railway track near Ennis. "At first, it might sound like a funny issue, but I must stress that it is very serious.

"He is very territorial and very dangerous. When he recently attacked animals in Barefield, the animals wouldn't return to the field, while the pig is also suspected of causing a pregnant cow to lose her calf after chasing her around a field for a night," he said.

As a result of enquiries, Mr Coote believes that the pig was once kept as a pet in a home in the Corrovorrin area of Ennis. He said: "An animal like that isn't suited to estates or urban areas. They need a lot of open space and whoever owned the pig probably realised that."

Mr Coote has asked the general public in the area to remain vigilant. "If the pig has been in the area, it will dig for roots and leave holes in the ground in the shape of a full moon. That's one way of knowing if the pig has been in the area," he said.

Mr Coote said that it is extremely important that the pig is caught as soon as possible. "I would be confident that we would be able to catch him with the press attention," he said.

A number of people have offered to shoot the pig dead. "That is not the way. We want to do this humanely, plus there is the danger that you will have people shooting black sheep believing that it is the pig," said the dog warden.

Mr Coote said that he is currently in the process of setting humane traps for the pig. It has been very difficult to track down the pig because it covers a five square mile area and, with the hot weather, it will be reluctant to come out into the open.