Efforts continue to try and corral pigs on the loose in Wayne

Efforts continue to try and capture four pigs that are on the loose in Wayne.

Joining in those efforts is Kelly Owens, founder/president of Wayne-based Hands & Hooves Riding, Rescue & Rehabilitation. Hands & Hooves is located on Army Trail Road in the vicinity of where the pigs have been seen.

“Somebody called me and said these pigs are right around the corner from you loose,” Owens said Friday afternoon. “I am also a humane investigator with the Department of Agriculture, so I get a lot of calls about loose animals. My job now is to just try to catch them, which is going to prove hard because they don’t seem to be very trusting of people.”

One of her friends, who is involved in wildlife rehabilitation, has built a trap to catch the pigs.

“My friend built a trap big enough for all of them to fit into,” Owens said. “It’s going to have a door on it that we’re going to be able to close from a different location. He can pull the rope and then the door is going to fall.”

One of the reasons it has been hard to catch them is because they are fast.

“They can take off and run like a dog,” Owens said.

She also contacted the nonprofit organization Chicagoland Pig Rescue. If the pigs are caught and the owner comes forth to claim them, they would be given back if it is proven they come from a good home, Owens said.

If that doesn’t happen, Chicagoland Pig Rescue would take ownership of the pigs, she said.

“And then they would put them in a foster home and get them adopted out,” Owens said. “But we have to catch them first.”

Kane County Animal Control is also helping in the efforts to capture the pigs, but is limited in what it can do.

“There is not much my office can do as the state does not include pigs on the list of ‘straying’ animals,” Kane County Animal Control administrator Brett Youngsteadt said in an email. “The rescue will be setting up a trap and we will return when requested and if needed to help use flight zones to move the pigs to the trap. At this time that is all we are able to do.”