Wild Boars Become Pet Project

WEEKI WACHEE - It started as the story of two little pigs.

They were scrawny little things when they came trotting out of the woods, half-starved and looking for salvation.

So Dale Boots and his neighbors helped them out. They fill water bowls and feed them corn once a day. When supper doesn't show up on time, the pigs escape from the fence encircling the 10-acre property they live on and the neighbors corral them back in.

But it's been nine months.

Now those two pigs weigh about 150 pounds and they've been joined by a small pot-bellied piglet that was supposedly abandoned on the property. The pigs, each covered with short, coarse black hair with bushy tails, spend most of their day snoozing in the sun.

Boots, 77, says it's time for them to go, but authorities have been no help.

Deputies have been out to the property five times; Animal Control officers came by with a trailer in November, but never retrieved the animals, Boots said.

"I've spent more than $100 to feed them and I've had enough," he said. "I'm sure somebody could use them."

Boots lives in the last house on Golden Eagle Avenue, which dead ends on the pigs' property. Watching livestock root around in the dirt is a bit startling among the clipped green lawns and tidy houses of the Woodland Waters subdivision.

For all his talk about evicting the pigs, Boots obviously enjoys watching the pigs and observing their habits. He calls the little one Peewee and notes that the pig "is a little bit smarter than the other two."

"Sometimes he goes off by himself, but he always comes back," Boots said. "The bigger one doesn't like him too much."

The source of the pigs was cleared up by property owner Bob Burbank, who doesn't appreciate the neighborhood generosity.

Those are wild pigs, said Burbank and feeding them "just makes it worse."

He acquired the property with the intention of dividing it up into residential plots, but a nosedive in the housing market put his plans on hold.

Burbank was surprised to get a notice eight months ago from Animal Control that he faced a fine for not taking care of his animals. But these are not his livestock and he wants them out. He's open to the idea of letting his buddies go in there and hunt them down.

"Boars make good eating," said Burbank, who planned to call Animal Control after hanging up with a reporter.