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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Pet pig killed; hunting dogs blamed

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By Peter Boylan
Advertiser Staff Writer

Four-year-old Gonzo was the pet of the Jon Van Dyke family, who raised the Vietnamese pot-bellied pig from infancy.

Photo courtesy Van Dyke family

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Police and state land officials are investigating the Sunday mauling death of a pet pig on Tantalus. It happened on private residential land whose owner has complained about hunting dogs trespassing.

Gonzo Picasso, a 4-year-old Vietnamese pot-bellied pig owned by University of Hawai'i law professor Jon Van Dyke, was in an enclosure on Van Dyke's six-acre property at the top of Round Top Drive when it was attacked and killed.

Van Dyke stated in a police report that three hunting dogs killed his pet pig.

Pig hunting is allowed on public lands on Tantalus, but over the past three weeks, Van Dyke said, he has had to chase hunting dogs off his property at least three times.

Van Dyke wrote a letter to the state Department of Land and Natural Resources complaining of the trespassing dogs. In response, the DLNR sent a note to people who have pig hunting licenses, advising them to steer clear of private property.

The DLNR allows pig hunting in the area of Round Top Drive on Wednesdays and Sundays.

Van Dyke's sister-in-law fed the pet pig at 7:30 a.m. Sunday. The Van Dykes discovered the animal — lifeless, with bites all over its legs and its right eye and cheek "totally ripped off" — about 9:30 a.m., Van Dyke said.

"The idea of these roving bands of dogs going around and mauling and killing pigs is frightening. This is a residential area. This could have been a child," Van Dyke said. "To get into our yard, you have to go pretty far from the public domain."

Van Dyke said his son, Eric, raised the pig from infancy.

Peter Young, director of the Department of Land and Natural Resources, said the state agency has opened a formal investigation. Investigators will check to see who is registered to hunt pigs in the Tantalus- Manoa area and try to learn who has recently been in the area.

"We'll find out what happened. We just don't know for sure what happened, other than the Van Dykes had a pet pig and they lost it," Young said. "I know how that feels. When I lived on the Big Island, I had a pet pig."

Reach Peter Boylan at pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com.