Investigating blood-curdling screams, Maine police are surprised to find an exceptionally happy pig

Happy pig: posed by a model (Wikimedia/Shipmanl29)

Police responding to reports of screaming coming from a home in Maine didn't find a victim of domestic violence as they feared. Instead, they found an amorous pig.

State police say a woman called last week after hearing what she believed to be a fight coming from a neighbour's home in the town of China. The caller said she heard screaming and thought there was a domestic assault.

The Morning Sentinel reports that four state troopers responded and talked to the neighbour.

The neighbour explained that she raises pigs and the screaming was coming from an overjoyed male pig that had been placed in a pen with five sows in heat.

Police say there was no assault and no disturbance "other than the screaming male pig".

Pigs, one of nature's more intelligent animals, have a notoriously loud, high-pitched squeal. Frightened pigs, in fact, can scream louder - by two decibels - than the sound created by a jet engine taking off.

AP