London - Two gingerhaired Tamworth boars dubbed "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Pig" led police, reporters and butchers a merry dance yesterday across the English countryside after fleeing from an abattoir.
However, as Sundance prepared for another night under the stars, the Daily Mail claimed it had found Butch and was looking after him in a secret pen. A high-tech search is set to resume at first light for the free member of the Tamworth two. Earlier a crowd watched as four police officers and an RSPCA man, using ropes, nets and powerful lamps, tried to capture Sundance in a garden in Malmesbury, Wiltshire.
However, Sundance made good his escape as the house owners tried to keep the throng, mostly made up of schoolchildren, off their two-acre property.
The pigs escaped the slaughterhouse knife several days ago by burrowing under a fence and swimming across an icy river to freedom.