SEFFNER, FL -
A Seffner man said he killed a wild boar Wednesday. His neighbor believes the animal was actually her runaway pot bellied pig.
Matt Garcia said he never saw a wild boar in his neighborhood until Tuesday. When the same black animal appeared in his yard Wednesday morning, he shot it with a bow and arrow out of fear for his children's safety. He said the arrow only injured the animal, so he asked a relative to shoot it with a gun.
"This thing had 2-inch tusks," said Garcia. "It is a wild hog. That's exactly what it is."
Garcia's neighbor across the street and two doors down believes the animal he killed wasn't wild.
"Piggly was a family pet, mainly for my son Jacob," said Renee Collins. "He was like a cat or a dog. He could lay down beside you. You could pet his belly. You could feed him by hand."
Collins thinks her pot bellied pig, Piggly, got out of his pen and walked away through an open gate in her yard.
"It probably wasn't latched correctly from my son, which was his fault, our fault," said Collins.
Collins said they haven't seen their 2-foot tall, 80-pound pet pig since Tuesday night. Garcia said he has never seen Piggly and never knew a pot-bellied pig lived on his street.
"If it was a pot bellied pig, I would have picked it up and petted it, but I did not," said Garcia. "I shot it."
Collins called the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office after learning her neighbor shot a pig. When a deputy arrived, Garcia was smoking the animal in a pit in his backyard.
"Everybody was asking me can we have some meat and I was like yeah," said Garcia. "The cop told me that I was burning the evidence."
The deputy left without pressing charges. It is legal to kill a wild boar if it comes on private property in Florida, according to Fish and Wildlife Spokesman Gary Morse. In this case, there were no obvious signs, like a collar or leash, to suggest the animal was a pet, according to Hillsborough County Sheriff spokesman Larry McKinnon.
"I'm not necessarily worried about the charges, honestly, because it's not going to bring Pig back," said Collins. "Pig's gone. The one that it's going to hurt is my 8-year-old."
"I know exactly what a hog looks like and I know what a pet pig looks like and it was not a pet," said Garcia.
Piggly, the pet pig
