PRINCETON, W.Va. — Firefighters, state troopers, deputies, and highway workers became emergency animal wranglers Thursday afternoon when a trailer-trailer hauling approximately 2,300 pigs overturned on a highway in southern West Virginia.

The driver was uninjured, but more than 1,000 of the pigs were not so lucky, state police officer, Corporal J.M. Ellison said. Ellison said at least that many died from their injuries and some were euthanized on the scene.

The crash happened when the driver was run off the road by another tractor-trailer, sucked into the median and came to a rest against a steel cable barrier, with the trailer toppled on its side, according to Ellison.

Squealing pigs could be heard inside the trailer as first responders worked to free them. Members of the East River Volunteer Fire Department climbed on top of the trailer and sprayed water into it, keeping the pigs cool. Two managed to escape, but they were caught quickly. The trailer did not break open and many of the animals were still trapped inside.

A line formed to pass the squealing pigs from person to person, made up of personnel from the Mercer County Animal Shelter, state troopers, Department of Health workers and Mercer county Sheriff’s Department, as well as volunteers.

People arrived with livestock trailers and cages to collect the animals. Detective K.L. Adams with the Bluefield Police Department, who joined in picking up the animals, said people he knew had asked him to get some pigs for them. Residents with farms and other places for livestock were collecting pigs as well.

“It’s the right thing to do so they don’t die,” Adams said.

There was no place in Mercer County to take that many pigs at once, according to Adams. The pigs had to be removed so they wouldn’t become a traffic hazard, he said.

Traffic was moving in single lanes both north and south as the recovery operation continued, but cars and trucks were backed up for miles.

“I tell you, the lifesavers were the fire department,” Arlie Matney, a supervisor with the West Virginia Department of Health, said as one firefighter kept spraying water on the pigs. “They actually got on top of the trailer and kept them cool. They probably saved three quarters of the live ones by getting on top and wetting them on down.”

Jordan writes for the Bluefield, West Virginia Daily Telegraph.