Police and animal control officers in Columbus, Mississippi, finally caught up with a 700-pound boar that had been on the loose for about a week, cornering the animal behind a day care on Alabama Street and bringing the search to an end. The capture took several officers, a rope and a level of caution appropriate to a 700-pound animal. The boar’s name was Bobo.
According to The Commercial Dispatch in Columbus, Bobo escaped through a fence on his owner’s property and was at large for the next week. The owner is the pastor of a local Baptist church. The animal eventually turned up in the brush behind a day care on Alabama Street. That enabled officers to hone in on the pig to capture him.
When officers arrived to take Bobo in, the containment plan they had set up at the wooded fence line didn’t hold once the animal moved. Bobo pushed out of the brush and forced the half-dozen police officers and two animal control officers on the scene to react. A rope, a chain-link gate and a backyard’s worth of room were not enough to make the job easy.
What happened next is the moment that has since circulated online. Officers eventually managed to hogtie the boar’s back legs and bring him to a stop. The capture ended with one officer sitting on top of him.
How Bobo Got Out
According to The Commercial Dispatch, Bobo is a 700-pound boar belonging to Rev. Joe Peoples, the pastor at Stephen Chapel Baptist Church in Columbus. Peoples told the paper that Bobo escaped through a fence on his property. He was at large for about a week before officers caught up with him.
The capture involved about a half-dozen Columbus police officers and two animal control officers. Officers initially set up along a wooded fence line at the back of the property and began working a rope toward the animal in the brush. The viral video shows the officers spaced around the tree line and a woman near the gate holding a blue container as the team closes in. With all sides covered, they’re finally able to make their move.
How Bobo Was Captured
The plan held only until Bobo moved. As he came out of the brush into the yard, the officers had to scramble to contain him in open ground. The footage shows officers stepping through a gate with the rope. The group converging on the animal from multiple directions as he kept moving.
Officers were eventually able to hogtie Bobo’s back legs. Columbus Police Officer Mack Smith was photographed sitting astride the boar after the animal had been subdued. It took him several tries to accomplish, but his expression in the photo says it all: a job well done.
Bobo was ultimately returned to his owner.