Big hog falls off truck and onto busy Kitchener highway

A hog was loose in the middle of a major highway in Kitchener on Tuesday afternoon, the Ministry of Transportation confirmed to Global News.

A hog was loose in the middle of a major highway in Kitchener on Tuesday afternoon, the Ministry of Transportation confirmed.

An MTO spokesperson said in an email the ministry was contacted around 3:45 p.m. as a pig had fallen off a truck on Highway 8, east of Fairway Road, near the Grand River bridge.

“The truck remained at the scene,” they said in an email. “The OPP and our MTO service provider attended and were able to load the pig back onto the trailer.”

Kathryn Burtenshaw, the co-founder of Ground Search and Rescue KW, said that she alerted the authorities to the situation after receiving a call from a volunteer.

“We received a call from one of our volunteers saying their boss had just seen a pig on the highway,” she explained in an email. “We instantly called OPP and our contacts at MTO. Shortly both OPP and MTO were on scene.”

She said the pig was soon back on board a truck and off the road before her organization could get involved.

“The truck that he fell off of was about half a mile down the highway and needed to be rerouted.  A sister truck had driven by and they were able to load the pig up safely,” she explained. “We had several sanctuaries reach out but the pig was loaded by that time.”