Whilst walking the dog with your young child along the local canal, many parents try to spot wildlife to show their children.
What this unsuspecting father of four did not expect however, was to come across two escaped pigs on his walk along the Monmouthshire-Brecon canal.
Huw Bassett (aged 45), was walking his young labradoodle, Bella, with his son Samuel, aged 5 on what he thought would be a peaceful couple of hours bonding time – exercising his pup whilst spending time with his son.
Their duck feeding day out suddenly took a surprising turn when Mr Bassett spotted a moving figure on the path ahead.
“I thought it was a goat at first” Mr Bassett stated.
Being a natural hero, Mr Bassett took caution when approaching the runaway animal, to see if he could discover from where the pig had escaped.
On his approach, a second pig appeared and also fled the fence from where it was kept.
“There was a small hole in the fence they pushed through. I hadn’t seen the first leave, but we witnessed the second pig push through it.”
Between handling his dog, and keeping an eye on his excited young child, Mr Bassett made the courageous decision to assist the rascals back to the safety of their pen.
After phoning and informing the farm of the breakout, Mr Bassett decided he could not leave the pigs roaming freely.
There were other people walking along the canal too with young children. I was concerned a child might attempt to pet the pigs and end up getting hurt. I was also concerned about the pig’s safety - being around many unfamiliar people could have caused them stress. Or the possibility of them falling in the canal, with such a steep bank, also concerned me”.
Whilst most people may have turned away, either from fear of the animals or concluding it was not an issue that concerned them, Mr Bassett took action.
He carefully nudged the pigs back through the gap in the fence; ensuring the disorderly duo returned to safety.
The farm from which the pigs escaped from informed Mr Bassett that the fence will be fixed as soon as possible, hopefully deterring the duo’s disappearance in the future.
