Vandals Break Into High School's Barn, Sets Pigs Loose From Pens

ORANGEVALE (CBS13) — Several pigs were bruised and battered in a late-night attack on a high-school campus.

Ag students at Casa Robles in Orangevale say someone broke into their barn and abused the helpless animals.

Whoever didn't break into the barn didn't steal anything, but they left the place in shambles and put the pigs in real danger.

More than a dozen pigs were found covered in bloody scratches and bruises Friday morning at the pig barn at the school.

Students believe someone broke in overnight, vandalized the barn and traumatized the animals.

"This looks like someone was trying to get some anger out," said Bo Nicholas. "They were smacking them pretty hard, doing some pretty bad stuff with them."

Many of the pigs haven't moved all day, meaning they're either really stressed or they were drugged.

Nicholas says he found the door to the barn pried off its hinges when he came to school, and the pigs had all been let out of their pens. He says that last part is very dangerous, because they fight each other.

"We found an army knife that they used to cut the cord to one of our other barns for the turkeys," he said. "We found a couple of beer bottles behind it."

Luckily the pigs are expected to be OK, eventually. But Nicholas wants the people responsible to know what they did has sabotaged their hard work.

"We pay lots of money for these animals," he said. "We take very good care of them, work with them everyday after school, and for someone to come in and wreck all of our progress. I mean the pigs won't even come near us now. It's sad."

The pigs are slowly recovering, but after being through so much trauma, it could set them back weeks in their training, and the county fair is only a couple of months away.

The students say this isn't the first time someone has broken into their pig pens. They hope to get security cameras installed soon.