A Hillsborough woman was arrested after her pet pig wandered onto a neighbor's property and bit down on his legs.
By JAY CRIDLIN
Published August 16, 2003
SEFFNER - Deep in a rural patch of this east Hillsborough community, past Stark Road and Joe Luke Lane, Betty Jean Feduccia's pet pig rested Friday afternoon in the shade of its dusty backyard pen.
One day earlier, the pig was anything but calm.
Authorities say Feduccia's pig ran into a neighbor's yard, splashing paint on his pickup and biting him several times on the leg.
Hillsborough Sheriff's deputies were called to investigate one of the more unusual incidents of the year.
Pig bites are rare, said Hillsborough Sheriff's Sgt. Mark Yost, who leads the department's agricultural unit. "They tend to shy away, unless it's a pet pig."
Feduccia, the pig's owner, faces a charge of negligently permitting livestock to run at large, a misdemeanor.
According to the Sheriff's Office, the trouble began about 8 a.m. Thursday. The pig waddled onto James Gavitt's property and into his front yard, where Gavitt had poured a pan of white interior latex semi-glossy paint. The pig got into the paint and smeared some of it on Gavitt's 2001 Dodge pickup.
Later that afternoon, as Gavitt, 29, was washing the paint from his truck, the pig returned and "attacked him," according to a sheriff's office statement.
Gavitt suffered two puncture wounds to his left leg and one to his right. He drove to Brandon Regional Hospital, where he was treated and released.
Gavitt could not be reached for comment, but it is unlikely the bite marks will go away anytime soon.
"Pigs' bites are really bad," said Carolann Mullins, co-owner of Mullins Mule Farm in Seffner and the owner of nine pigs. "They're like a dog's bite. Pigs' jaws are very, very strong, so their bites are usually pretty deep."
The sheriff's agricultural unit, which investigates incidents involving livestock, arrested Feduccia at 5 p.m. Thursday. She was released on her own recognizance.
Feduccia, 59, a school bus driver, declined to comment on the incident.
The owner of the land, Pauline De Luco of Riverview, said Feduccia has rented the property from her since November 2001.
"I didn't know pigs bit," De Luco said. "The last time I saw him, a couple of months ago, he was getting quite big."
The Sheriff's Office did not indicate what kind of pig Feduccia owns.
Some neighbors said they were not surprised by the attack.
Charles Williams said he has seen the pig chase dogs before. Once, he said, the pig even charged him - though it didn't come close enough to bite.
"They need to get rid of him," he said. "He chases everybody."
Another neighbor, Abdul Razak, said he was worried about the pig's well being. Not long ago, it got loose and began rooting through trash in Razak's yard. Razak said he saw a "very nasty-looking" wound on the pig's back.
The incident is being investigated by the Sheriff's Office's agricultural unit.
