‘We know where the pig belongs’: The escape and capture of Gloucester County’s Pumba, the potbellied pig

Pumba, a black 200-pound potbellied pig, came to be a resident of Gloucester County under somewhat trying circumstances. His previous owners were moving to West Virginia; they were selling their horse on Craigslist and telling potential buyers that if they couldn’t find anything else to do with Pumba, they would have to euthanize him.

Jay, whom The Inquirer is referring to by his nickname for privacy reasons, wanted to buy the horse. He didn’t really want the pig, but he also didn’t want to see the animal euthanized.

So about eight years ago, Jay brought Pumba home, along with the horse and a couple of chickens thrown in for good measure.

Jay said if he wanted to raise pigs for slaughter, he would do so, but Pumba is a potbellied big, and not to be eaten. Potbellied pigs are very smart, social, sensitive creatures, according to the Pig Placement Network. They sometimes get depressed. Pumba himself is friendly but has fearsome-looking tusks.

Ever since he was adopted, Pumba has lived peaceably on Jay’s field, sleeping on hay, exploring the barn, and eating pig feed purchased especially for him from Tractor Supply. Nobody bothered him much.

“When I go in there to feed him, I talk to him, even though he ain’t talking back,” Jay said. “I let him live his life out there. Whatever a pig’s life is.”

Jay’s 2-year-old grandson lives next door and they often walk between the properties. On Friday, they must not have closed the gate tightly enough, Jay said.

Pumba had never escaped before. But this time, he let himself out into the wide world beyond.

There he was, spotted by the Mattress Firm Sewall and the Village Pub, wandering around in traffic. The Washington Township police dispatched two officers who chased him down, tackled him, and tied him up. Then they put out a wanted poster on Facebook.

Calls started coming in. Jenn Birney, a managing member of Green with Envy Landscape & Design, had just seen that pig on Jay’s property the week before, when the company was doing mulch and cleanup.

“We know where the pig belongs,” she told the police.

Jay, who drives a tractor trailer for work and has no time for jokes, started hearing about it, too.

“My neighbor told me, ‘Your pig’s on Facebook.’ I said, ‘The pig ain’t on Facebook, I was just out there a half hour ago, and the pig was in the yard,’” said Jay. Eventually he looked online. “I saw it and said, man, that’s my pig!”

The two are now reunited. Jay is not particularly eager for the media and community attention surrounding the escape, but so be it, he said.

“I’m just a working guy. I’ve got a wife, kids, grandkids,” he said. “Hopefully the pig’s got a good life.”