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This piggy will not go to market as sausage

800-pound hog reverses fate by surviving crash, snacking, taking dip in pool

Image: Pig in swimming pool
LeAnn Baldy of Arkansas was stunned Monday when she noticed her pool was overflowing. She was even more surprised when she saw an immersed, 800-pound hog cooling off in the water and enjoying a drink.
Stephen B. Thornton / Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
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TODAY staff and wire
updated 9:05 p.m. ET June 30, 2009

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - This pig wasn't dubbed the 'ham on the lam' by its local newspaper for nothing.

An 800-pound hog that survived on its own for a week after a truck flipped while on its way to a slaughterhouse has surfaced in a swimming pool at a home near the crash site.

LeAnn Baldy, whose house is only yards from Interstate 430, said Monday she noticed her pool was suddenly overflowing and then saw the immersed pig, which was having a drink in the pool.

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About 90 hogs were in the trailer when it overturned where I-430 meets I-40, and about 60 survived. Officials said they thought the last of them had been caught.

Baldy said she found a farmer to take in the pig.

A spokesman for Odom's Tennessee Pride said it can't use the hog in its sausage products because no one knows what the hog had been eating in its week on the lam.

This story contains information from The Associated Press.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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