WILD PIGS: Susan Godfrey phoned Sunday night to tell us her
experience with those scary-looking feral pigs photographed not far
from Allegany State Park.

Susan says she hikes nearly every day and has been for 22 years.
A week ago Tuesday, she was in the Thunder Rocks area around 6 p.m.
and heard something stirring in the woods. So the next day she went
hiking earlier, around 5:30 p.m.

She was near Little Ireland, a steep embankment in the Thunder
Rocks area when she heard something about 30-40 feet away from her.
She sat and waited to see what it was. It was the scariest pig she
had ever seen and the first time she had ever seen one in the
park.

Susan tells us she was pretty scared and ran, even though she
probably shouldn’t have — but that it was the scariest thing she
has ever encountered in the woods.

When she got home she called the Park Police and told them her
story (this was before it ran in the paper) and they seemed to
dismiss her claims. Friends told her it was probably a mangy bear,
but she was sure it was a pig.

Then she went to Toronto on Thursday and when she returned and
saw the pigs on the front page of the paper, she knew she had to
call her story in because the pig she came in contact with was huge
and ugly and had absolutely no fear of her.

She remembers in the spring seeing a truck with a man and a
woman and thinks they could possibly been the ones to have dumped
the pigs. And in all the years, she has never come across “hoof”
prints in the snow and she remembers hearing squealing in the
springtime this year.

For those who may have missed it, we ran a picture in Saturday’s
edition of three pigs traipsing across the Indian Pipe Trail near
the Bradford entrance to Allegany State Park located just across
the border in New York.

The question for game officials, of course, is where did these
wild pigs come from.

Apparently, they are considered an “invasive” species and are
considered a threat to farmers since they can disrupt livestock and
damage fences and feeders. In addition, they carry infectious
diseases that may infect domestic or game animals.