VERMILION — Provincial agriculture investigators say that nobody will be charged after officials recently found a stack of 30 previously frozen dead pigs that had been dumped in a ditch east of Edmonton.
Karl Vidal, an investigation officer for Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development, says they found newborn pigs stacked along with several larger animals, and even a very large sow.
All told, Vidal says there were over 300 kilograms of dead pigs discovered in the ditch near Vermilion, Alta.
He said he believes the dead pigs were being hauled to a disposal site by an area farmer when the truck and its trailer jack-knifed outside of the rural community.
The back of the trailer tumbled into the ditch and a giant block of frozen pigs spilled out the back.
But the farmer couldn’t immediately get back to the area to properly dispose of the thawing pile of animals.
“They left them there for a week, and a week later they drove their trailer to go pick them up,” Vidal said. “I had already had them loaded and shipped out to the Northern Alberta Processors for rendering.”
Vidal was able to track down the person transporting the pigs.
“They told me it wasn’t the disposal site they chose,” he said.
Richard Van Ee, the reeve of the County of Vermilion River, said the rural district had to get involved to make sure the pigs were properly disposed of.
While both Vidal and Van Ee said it was odd to see 30 dead animals stacked in the ditch, it is not uncommon for dead livestock to show up along roadsides.
“We get a few dumping of dead animals along the roadways every year,” said Vidal.
Because the people who dumped the pigs had intended to clean them up, he said they will not be charged.