Pig Thieves Go On Porcine Crime Spree Across The Midwest

nerissa's ring, Flickr, CC

How do you know the economy has gotten really bad? When people resort to stealing pigs like it's 1929 or something. The New York Times reports that pig theft is way up in the Midwest. One farmer, Ryan Bode, found that 150 of his pigs were missing on September 16, resulting in losses of up to $30,000, and that doesn't even include the money he spent on feed.

The problem is especially bad in Iowa, where pig bandits have absconded with 20 to 30 pigs at a time from eight different facilities in the last few weeks. The biggest mystery, however, is what exactly is being done with the animals, seeings as you can't exactly sell a 270-pound pig on eBay.

Most likely they are being taken to butchering facilities to be turned into contraband pork chops, but that would still require a pretty big operation to capture and transport the animals, not to mention that most farming communities are pretty small, meaning a stranger pulling up to get a group of hogs butchered would look fairly suspicious.

So, how are pig farmers fighting back? By installing security systems and tattooing their pigs so they can keep track of them. Do I smell the premiere of CSI: Iowa on the horizon?

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