Amid the flooding, a pig rescue effort
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As the Midwest continues to suffer from severe flooding, many recovery efforts have focused on animals. The Associated Press reports that a rescue effort was launched Friday to save about 50 pigs stranded on a levee near Oakville, Iowa, where the Iowa River raged out of its banks. (The pig at right was trying to cross a nearby levee.)
About two dozen volunteers from four animal welfare agencies were attempting to reach the animals with feed, apples and Gatorade, said Colleen Cullen, a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts-based International Fund for Animal Welfare. That group, the American Humane Assn., Farm Sanctuary and the Animal Rescue League of Boston have been working in Illinois to help care for abandoned animals. They kept a small staff in Illinois and sent the volunteers to Iowa to help with the pig rescue. The Iowa Department of Agriculture confirmed that it asked the volunteer groups to step in and help rescue the pigs.
Today, the IFAW reported 15 pigs have been rescued and are being transported to their new home at Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glen, N.Y.
-- Alice Short
