butch and sundance crawled under the fence and jumped into the river. It was the middle of winter and the water was as cold as ice. Quickly they swam to the other side, climbed out and ran into the woods. They were safe - for now.
In January 1998 two pigs escaped from an abattoir 150 kilometres west of London. The pigs were going to be killed for meat. For almost a week, they hid in the woods around the town of Malmesbury. Journalists who reported the story named the pigs Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Pig.
When the local police began to look for the pigs, journalists from all over the country joined them. Soon people everywhere were reading about the adventures of Butch and Sundance with great interest. The owner of the pigs said that if they were found, he would sell them to anyone who would give them a home. A number of newspapers tried to buy the pigs, and eventually The Daily Mail paid a lot of money for them.
One rainy night, six days after the escape, a journalist from The Daily Mall and some people from the town found Butch in the woods. They caught her and put her in cage. The next day, Sundance was caught too. The police used dogs to chase him from his hiding place into a garden.
The pigs were sent to a zoo. They were no longer free, but they were alive!