Snout and about: Adventurous piglets swim across B.C. river in great escape from farm

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/piglets-fraser-river-1.4797111 7-week-old pigs swam the Fraser River south of Quesnel before taking 7-km hike Courtney Dickson · CBC News · Posted: Aug 25, 2018 10:00 AM PT | Last Updated: 7 hours ago The piglets swam the Fraser River and then embarked on a seven-kilometre hike through rough terrain before they were retrieved. (Submitted) Four young piglets are back safe at home after escaping their enclosure in Buck Ridge, B.C., and swimming across the Fraser River. Stephanie Bird, owner of Slow Train Farm, around 25 kilometres south of Quesnel, was working one afternoon when she realized her four seven-week-old piglets weren't in their enclosure. She and her husband searched all over the farm and in neighbouring properties, but the pigs were nowhere to be found. "Which is really somewhat unusual because usually you can hear them a little bit in the forest or in the tall grass," she told Shelley Joyce, host of CBC's Daybreak Kamloops. Bird's husband suggested the pigs may have swum across the river, but Bird wasn't so sure. It wasn't until she was perusing a community Facebook page when she realized he might be right. A person living directly across the Fraser River from Bird posted that she had found some pigs running around properties on that side of the river. "Then it dawned on me, oh my god, those are our pigs," she said. The piglets had crossed the river and hiked seven kilometres south, crossing steep terrain. Bird said she didn't even know pigs could swim. "It took quite a while for the initial shock to wear off." She drove to her neighbour's to pick up three of the piglets — but the fourth got frightened and swam back across the river. Now, the pigs are safe at home — for now. Bird said at least two of them will eventually be sent to slaughter. "You get attached to livestock," Bird said. "We might keep two of them." With files from Daybreak Kamloops​