TARPON SPRINGS - Bruce J. Bender didn't know Sweetpea the black pot-bellied pig was under his truck when he hit the gas pedal last month, he said.
If he had, the 18-year-old student said he never would have pulled forward.
He's an animal lover, Bender said, and hitting Sweetpea on March 17 in Crystal Beach was an accident. So he was surprised Wednesday night when Pinellas County sheriff's deputies came to arrest him at his home.
Bender was charged with one felony count of animal cruelty and spent almost 24 hours in custody before he was released Thursday night on his own recognizance.
Authorities say Bender asked a friend to lure Tracy Hall's pet pig into the middle of a Crystal Beach street and then ran over the animal. The accident ripped the skin off the pig's right side, shattering her pelvis and causing other injuries. Sweetpea is recovering at home after Hall spent nearly $3,600 in veterinary bills.
But Bender denies that's what happened. That night, he said, he was on a double-date with his friend Ryan Coleman and their girlfriends. They were on the way to a friend's home in Crystal Beach when Bender made a wrong turn. Two animals stood in the middle of the road, a dog and another curious-looking animal, and Bender stopped his truck.
When they realized it was a pig, the girls wanted to get out to pet it, Bender said. After a few minutes, they got back in the truck to drive away, Bender said, and his friend checked to make sure the pet pig wasn't in front of the truck.
But Sweetpea, out for a walk with Hall and her old English sheepdog, Phil, was under the truck, Bender said. When he pulled away, he hit the pig with his back wheel. After Bender circled around, a throng of neighbors had gathered and formed a roadblock, he said, and they were yelling expletives at him.
Bender said he got out of his truck, waited for authorities and immediately offered to pay the pig's veterinary bills. He and his friends left the scene after a sheriff's deputy agreed with him that it was an accident, Bender said. He did not receive a ticket that night.
All four teens went home and told their parents about the incident, said Bender's mother, Andrea Bender. Bruce, the oldest of her four children, isn't the type to be cruel to animals. In fact, at home he takes care of his family's Great Dane, Bell, and feeds abandoned kittens that are left on the beach near their home, she said.
"I know animal cruelty is not taken lightly and should not be," she said. "If I thought my son had done it, I would have left him there in jail to think about it."
Deputies charged Bender on Wednesday after an investigation involving the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney's Office, sheriff's officials said.
After a Times story about Bender's arrest ran Friday, the Benders received about a half-dozen phone calls from people calling Bruce Bender a pig killer, Andrea Bender said. One suggested Bruce himself should be run over, she said.
Bruce Bender has retained an attorney and plans to contest the charges.
Contacted Friday, Hall declined to comment on Bender's account of the incident, saying she didn't want to get into a he-said, she-said dispute.
"I'm going to let the law handle that," Hall said. "I've already said what I can say. . . . I just hope he learns not to do that kind of stuff again."
