Logo

A pink and brown pet pig snatched from a Cleveland family’s home last week has been found dead, the grief-stricken family said.

The 1-year-old miniature pig, named Spam, was taken from the home of Valerie Couch and Paul Etzler on Sept. 12 during a break-in, Fox 8 reported.

“I realized that I didn’t hear the pig oinking and he does this really loud grunt, and I didn’t hear anything and then I realized his carrier was gone, so they must have put him in the carrier and took him out,” Etzler told Fox 8 after the break-in.

Electronics and jewelry were also taken, but the family was most hurt by Spam’s disappearance — they asked police for help but they didn’t track him down until Thursday, almost 10 days later.

Etzler told Fox 8 police received an anonymous tip that Spam was in East Cleveland. Cops discovered him dead in his carrier in the back yard of a home in the area.

“It’s just heartbreaking to think about what he went through in the past week-and-a-half. I can’t imagine in a million years. We feel helpless that we couldn’t prevent it,” Couch said.

“Maybe to them it was just an animal, I don’t know. I’ll never understand the reasoning behind it. Why they bothered to take him if they weren’t going to do anything with him.”

Comments
anonymous profile image
Powered by RoundtableBuilt on infrastructure designed for real-time media. Learn more at RTB.io.© Roundtable 2026. By using this site you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy