A week after a neighbor shot and killed a pig named Rosie that wandered onto his property in Northfield, police filed multiple charges against the pig’s owner.
Donald Smith, 38, of Northfield was cited on Oct. 11, accused of using “abusive and obscene language” in public and challenging his neighbor — Bernard Atwood — to a fight in the roadway, according to the Northfield Police Department.
In an interview with VTDigger, Smith said he never tried to fight Atwood and plans to dispute the charges.
According to a press release, the Northfield Police Department had received multiple complaints over time about Smith’s animals wandering onto neighboring properties and into the roadway.
“The neighbor was complaining about the pig digging up his lawn,” Police Chief John Helfant said in an interview.
Smith acknowledged that Rosie and her companion, a pig named Dottie, got out of his yard, but said they were not clearly on his neighbor’s property.
“My friend called me; he said your pigs are in the driveway, but they’re out,” Smith said, recalling the incident on Oct. 4. “I left work and was home in 15 minutes, and in that time my neighbor shot the pig on the property line.”
Helfant said streaks of blood were found on Atwood’s side of a berm on the property line, indicating that the pig was on his property. But Smith thinks it is too close to call.
“He shot it literally so much on the line that for all I know it was standing on my side of the dirt pile,” Smith said.
No person may kill livestock, poultry or similar animals unless they have the owner’s permission, according to state law.
Atwood was assigned to a restorative justice program after killing the pig, according to Helfant. Atwood could not be reached for comment.
Smith was cited on multiple offenses after the incident, including criminal threatening, disorderly conduct, and animals running at large on land or premise of another, according to the press release.
Northfield police also charged him with aggravated disorderly conduct for traffic obstruction.
“He often parks his vehicles in the public highway, blocking an entire lane of traffic where people have to go into the oncoming lane,” Helfant said. “We’ve had many complaints of that over probably the last six months.”
Smith was also accused of providing false information to law enforcement — telling a Vermont Fish & Game warden that the pig was in the roadway, “which it was not at the time it was shot,” Northfield police said in the release.
In the interview, Smith denied he said the pig was shot in the roadway. He claimed he was referring to the direction in which his neighbor had shot, rather than where the pig was.
“The fact of the matter is, he shot towards the road at my pig,” Smith said. “He shot towards my house at the pig. He shot at a residence.”
Smith is due in Washington County Superior Court on Thursday to answer the charges, according to the press release. He said he plans to plead not guilty.
