Arnold, The Crime Fighting Pig, Dies Of Heart Failure

[matcom]

<snip>

At a time of police shortage and public concern about crime, a south Minneapolis neighborhood has lost one of its most prized protectors -- a 450-pound porker who made news around the world for taking a bite out of crime by taking a bite into a would-be burglar.

Arnold the Crime-Fighting Pig died last month from apparent heart failure. Six-year-old Arnold was mascot of the Stevens Square neighborhood, where he was fawned over at local festivals and where passing cars screeched to a halt as drivers hollered out their windows, "Is that a real pig?"

"Yeah, it's a real pig," neighbors would volley back as drivers sidled their cars to the curb on Clinton Avenue for closer inspection of the part Yorkshire, part Vietnamese pot-bellied pig napping in his owner's front yard.

ArnoldCarlos GonzalezStar Tribune"We had a lot of fun with him," said neighbor Jeanne Krueger.

Arnold's honorific appellation was bestowed after he foiled two intruders who tried to rob his owner, Becky Moyer, at gunpoint in February 2001. Moyer said she had just returned home from work and was confronted by two men in her garage. They went her into her kitchen, where Arnold was sitting patiently by the refrigerator waiting to be spoon-fed his dinner as usual.

"I was so scared I started screaming, and Arnold... he got up so much faster than I had ever seen him and nabbed that right in the leg," Moyer said.

The burglars took off, leaving behind a puddle of blood. As for Arnold? He quickly fell asleep. The porcine heroics helped earn the Clinton Avenue block club a Minneapolis Police Department "Building Blocks" award that year and Arnold TV spots on Miracle Pets, the Montel Williams Show, Sally Jesse Raphael and Children's National Geographic. Even the British press came calling.

"I never dreamed, never dreamed that a pig could be a protector," Moyer said. "Never."

Arnold was a birthday present to Moyer in 1999, weighing in at 10 pounds and expected to top off at 60.

"I was like, I don't need this pig," Moyer said. "I just wanted a night out on the town or something."

Perhaps Moyer didn't blow out all of her birthday candles in one breath, because the 50-something not only fell in love with Arnold as soon as he nuzzled her neck with his snout, but two weeks later Moyer and her significant other, Mike Sjoberg, brought home a second pot-bellied hybrid, Axel.

And so arrived the urban oinker celebs who lived in a room off Moyer's garage fitted with first-class amenities (air conditioning, a king-size bed and TV), who paraded down Clinton Avenue S. and who helped racially diverse neighbors overcome cultural and language barriers.

http://www.startribune.com/stories/1557/5513459.html

[RedCloud]

1. a bite out of crime by taking a bite into a would-be burglar.???

Maybe it was a would be burger and this is all an urban legend.\

Still, may Ahnuld, the groping pig, find happiness in Hog heaven.

[MadHound]

2. Geez, 450 lbs? No wonder the pig got a heart attack!

Sorry, but this particular cross isn't designed to carry that much weight, and after six years it proved fatal. For such a beloved and nobel animal, you would think that the owners would feed it a heatier diet. But nooooo. I did some Google research, and poor Arnold was fed a lot of junk food, giant M&M cookies, sweet rolls, whatever the neighbor kids brought over, etc. Not healthy for a pig, not healthy at all.

I hope that they learned their lesson, and feed their next pig a healthier diet.