Mystery of eight pigs being dumped at UK car park
Eight pigs dumped at a car park near Coniston, Lake District, UK have kept local people puzzled for a while.
The mystery began when National Trust lead ranger John Atkinson received numerous calls about pigs seen in a car park at Dodgson Wood, Coniston. All the reported sightings involved four pigs. The pigs, eight in total, were eventually captured and taken to Grizedale Arts, a sculpture park.
There are five piglets of about 12 weeks old, two adolescent females around one year old and a sow, believed to be the mother. The pigs have no tags or markings to identify their owners. It is feared they were deliberately dumped in the car park.
The pigs, nicknamed the Coniston Eight, are settling in at Grizedale Arts, who have offered to give the animals a temporary home at the charity’s hill farm at nearby Lawson Park. The pigs join Grizedale Arts’ resident pedigree British Lop pig, Octavia.
A spokeswoman for the National Trust, said: “They need feeding and getting back to full health because they are not as big as they should be for their age. They look as if they haven’t been fed properly for a while.”
National Trust rangers have worked hard to try to identify their owners. But the area surrounding the location where they were spotted is remote.
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