Livestock guardian pig

Tuesday morning I glanced out the window and saw my sow had gotten out.   She is generally well behaved, so I was in no hurry.  I downed my coffee and went outside. As I let her back into her pen, I noticed her piglets from last fall huddled in a corner as if there was danger.  I looked around and saw her foot prints in the snow going to the chickens.   Inside the chicken pen was the story:  A hen was gutted.  A rooster was crippled but alive. I ended his suffering.  And there was  a dead raccoon looking as if it had been run over by a Mack Truck.

I went back to the pigs and thanked Sassafras for her work.  I told her children they were safe …momma is a badass.

That's excellent John, another animal to add to the protectors list.  I'm familiar with Maremma dogs and alpacas being used as guardians of sheep flocks, but a pig is a new one!

That's pretty awesome. It takes a pretty big predator to take on an angry adult pig. Go get 'em Sass!

Edit: Sad about the chooks though.

Give Sassafras a treat from me! She may not have saved two of the chickens, but she may well have saved the rest of the flock. Coons are not as bad as mink for "killing everything moving", but they are very prone to returning over and over.

At least you can be fairly sure the rest of the chickens are safe... unless the coon was tag-teaming and there's a second one who's too hungry to have learned its lesson?

Wow....she 'Mama-bear'd' that unsuspecting racoon!  Yeah, mama pigs don't mess around.  Our first exposure to that was partitioning a pot-bellied sow in a stall with some food as we hurriedly collected her piglets.  We were in a different building altogether giving them shots when the door flung open and mama was there, eyes ablaze, wondering what the &%$# we were doing with her young'uns.  We finished quickly, then went back to see how the heck she had gotton out of that stall.   Turns out that little pot had lifted the rather heavy gate right off of its hinges, leaving the locked portion to dangle on the lock-chain!

Good PIGGIE!! Nice going Sassafrass!!

Hi John W,

We have Kunekunes.  I find them to be pretty calm in most circumstances.  Momma allows our shelter pup into her pen to babysit even her youngest piglets.  But, yes, I am pretty cautious when giving shots.  I have no doubt the the adults stay in their areas because I want them there….not because they can’t figure out yet another method of escape. But they do seem to need to have a valid reason for escape…such as danger, love, or supper being late.

My wife has multiple health issues. She fell in our back yard several months back. The boar (Reno) lifted the gate (even though I thought I had secured it with lag bolts so it couldn’t be lifted).  He then galloped across the yard to check on her.  Of course, she thought she was dead. It appears that, when you are laying on the ground, having  a boar come at you at full gallop can be impressive.  When he reached her, he only showed concern and was quite gentle in nudging her to move.

Edit 1/26: I do need to add Reno was rewarded by being hand fed strawberries.  

Hi Jay,

What surprised me is that the attack appears to have taken place in early daylight hours.  I am suspecting this because the rooster was in the yard.

Daytime raccoon attack...

Is it too late to check for rabies in the raccoon?

Hi B,

Of course Rabies is always a concern.  The pig didn’t have a mark on her.   The raccoon was thoroughly stomped…I doubt if it knew what hit it.  You raise a good point, but having the remains of the raccoon tested didn’t occur to me.

Remind me not to upset Sassafras...

Hi Timothy,

Kunes are “small pigs”. They have a pretty low keyed temperament. I have had full scale pig farmers tell me they are on a first name basis with their local ER.

B Beeson wrote:Daytime raccoon attack...

Is it too late to check for rabies in the raccoon?

I am so glad that raccoon on my island aren't known to carry that disease, but I have heard they do in many areas of the US, so good point!

Coons can hunt a somewhat crepuscular schedule (dawn and dusk).

Some potential factors:
1. Evening hunt unsuccessful.
2. Coon that was released in the current area from the city and is desperate.
3. General food shortage.
4. Is it too early for it to already have kits? That increases the pressure where I am if they're feeding hungry young.
5. It's learned already that chicken tastes really good.

I'm sure others can add to this list. Our Absolute Worst year for coons was when a lady down the peninsula had been feeding coons and then stopped cold turkey when the neighbors publicly complained. The ripple effect of hungry coons spread outward, coons interfered with humans more to the point they live trapped them but didn't want to kill them so they let them go "in the forest". There's no food in the forest for displaced coons, but our farm is just on the far side of that forest. Sigh... we had no choice but to do the dirty work and culled a lot of coons. At least I pressure cooked them and fed them back to the chickens they kept harassing!

What a lovely story : )

You need to buy that pig some mirrored aviator sunglasses right now.

Can't beat Sassafras, but I had a sow who roamed the ranch yard freely.  She took it upon herself to break up the ranch dogs when they got in a fight, which was quite frequent, as one thought she didn't need any other farm dogs on the place.   One day Daisy was behind me, when the dogs who were in front of me, got into it.  I knew what was going to happen, but wasn't quick enough to get out of her way.  Daisy barreled right between my legs flipping me over backwards.  By the time I got up, the dog fight was over.