A disruptive pig got loose on the Harry W. Nice Memorial Bridge in southern Maryland this morning, disrupting traffic until authorities could wrangle the animal.
The Charles County Sheriff’s Office tweeted with mysteriously little detail this morning that it had a situation on its hands.
Harry Nice Bridge Delays Due to lose livestock. Will update as soon as possible. View map https://t.co/iNwcyhSVz1
— Charles Co Sheriff (@CCSOMD) April 28, 2017
As that alert likely only left people guessing, the Maryland Transportation Authority provided some additional info.
Awaiting Animal Control to arrive on the scene to assist with the ?. https://t.co/VmtPLSWy5W
— MDTA (@TheMDTA) April 28, 2017
While it sounds like it was complicated, Maryland Independent reporter Andrew Richardson wrote that it was actually a fairly quick ordeal, with pig-related bridge blockage starting just before 8:20 a.m. and ending within 45 minutes. He wrote that the pig “looked to weigh a couple hundred pounds,” according to police.
(We’ve reached out to MDTA for pictures.)
Animal control officers reportedly helped contain the pig away from the roadway so that traffic could proceed into and out of Virginia.
Plenty of other questions remain. It would be easy to blame human error for allowing the pig to get loose, but research has shown pigs are actually pretty smart. Perhaps this one was especially crafty, wasn’t feeling too keen on being used for human consumption and decided to take matters into its own hands.
