Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Pig will never grace (or indeed, grease) the plates of porklovers. The two ginger Tamworth pigs who escaped from an abattoir in Wiltshire on January 8th and made monkeys of the police, expert pig-handlers, the RSPCA and the world's press, have both been safely recaptured.
Also known as the Tamworth Two, Butch and Sundance have a reprieve from slaughter and, apparently, will instead live out their days as prize possessions of the Daily Mail. The Mail is rumoured to have paid £14,000 for the pair, whose antics obsessed the animal-loving British and led to a surge of interest in vegetarianism. The pigs normally fetch up to £50 each.
They were raised by Mr Arnoldo Dijulio, a roadsweeper with North Wiltshire District Council, in his garden. They escaped when he brought them and a third pig - the one in the middle, perhaps? - to a Malmesbury abattoir for slaughter.
The two intrepid pigs escaped through the abattoir's perimeter fence, pursued by abattoir workers. They managed to swim across the flooded River Avon to safety.
PC Roger Bull said yesterday. "I would describe these pigs as extremely cunning and devious. They must have been planning this for weeks."
They enjoyed their freedom together for seven days before Butch was caught by a team from the Daily Mail on Thursday.
Sundance, however, remained at large despite the attentions of up to 100 journalists from all over the world who used cars, helicopters and light aircraft on the trail of the lonesome swine.
On Thursday night the five-month-old boar was apparently cornered, but he eluded a team of expert pig-handlers for three hours before escaping.
In a desperate measure, a pigbreeder, Mr Dave Lang, brought along Samantha, a fetching 60stone Tamworth sow, in the hope that Sundance (a lightweight youth of five months and a mere seven stone) would succumb.
"Pigs are hopelessly attracted to the opposite sex. What young chap would not be attracted to an older woman?" Mr Lang said. It was not to be. With remarkable self-control, Sundance did not fall for Samantha's charms.
He was finally captured at lunchtime yesterday when shot with a tranquilliser dart.
The Tamworth Two will be immortalised in the shape of cuddly toys which are expected to be on the market by the end of the month.
Sadly, the third pig, resigned to its fate, did not join the escape. It died without even enjoying a nickname. "It's hanging up here split in two waiting to be collected," said Mr Jeremy Newman, the phlegmatic abattoir owner.