Runaway pigs nabbed -- but saved from bacon

An animal aid worker recaptures an escaped pin near Malmesbury, England

January 16, 1998
Web posted at: 9:31 p.m. EST (0231 GMT)

LONDON (CNN) -- Two pigs whose flight from a slaughterhouse captivated the British public are back in captivity -- but their daring days on the lam have apparently won them a reprieve from the butcher's block.

Dubbed Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Pig, after the silver screen desperadoes, the cunning duo broke away from slaughterhouse workers last week in Malmesbury, 90 miles (145 km) west of London.

After they squeezed under a fence and swam a river, the chase was on -- and the national tabloid press followed it with gusto. Papers started a bidding war, reportedly offering as much as $24,500 to the pigs' owner to purchase the porkers.

Butch (who turned out to be a she) was cornered Thursday by a reporter for the Daily Mail, which promptly published a "world oinkslusive." Sundance was cornered Friday and subdued with a tranquilizer dart.

The swine who fled are now on their way to an animal sanctuary, but the fallout they created continues. A toy company plans to produce souvenir stuffed piglets, and the Vegetarian Society says it has received a surge of interest, which it attributes to compassion for Butch and Sundance in this animal-loving nation.

Correspondent Richard Blystone and Reuters contributed to this report.

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