news-record.com

BURLINGTON (MCT ) — A Burlington woman, Elon police and an animal hospital did their best Thursday to help a pet pig that had been hit by a car.

Kim Strickland saw the pig while on the way to drop off her daughter at Elon Elementary School. She and her daughter had almost reached the school when they noticed the animal near a bush on the side of the road.

"It kind of looked like a little puppy," Strickland said. She soon determined the animal was a pig. "He couldn't move ... he was kind of digging beside a bush."

After dropping off her daughter at Elon Elementary, Strickland stopped to determine what was going on with the animal.

"One side of him looked like he had been hit by a car," Strickland said, so she called the police for help.

She later learned to refer to the pig as a "she." Through Officer C.N. Ripple of the Elon Police Department, Strickland found out the pig, named Francine, is a pet that had gotten away from her home with some Elon University students.

Ripple said the pig ended up at nearby Phoenix Animal Hospital in Gibsonville. The animal needed surgery for serious injuries that would have to be done somewhere else if the owners could afford to pay for the treatment.

An employee of the animal hospital said late Thursday afternoon the animal was in stable condition and confirmed the pig needs to be treated elsewhere. Whether that happens will be up to the animal's owners, she said.