XENIA, Ohio, June 9 (UPI) -- A tractor trailer carrying more than 2,000 baby pigs overturned on a highway near Xenia, Ohio, on Monday.
Officials said up to 400 piglets were killed in the accident, while others scattered across the highway and into a nearby wooded area.
According to WDTN, the truck was on its way from South Carolina to Indiana when the driver lost control and ran into a guardrail.
Police officers, firefighters and other volunteers managed to retrieve 1,500 survivors, which were taken to the Greene County Fairgrounds to recover.
"They're in the woods, so I don't think we'll ever get all of them -- I really, really don't," Xenia Township Fire Chief Dean Fox told WCPO. "We'll try as hard as we can to retrieve all of them, but we probably won't retrieve them all."
The truck driver, who was not injured, was cited for failure to control a vehicle. His passenger suffered minor injuries.
Officials said the piglets were "feeder pigs," which are purchased at a very young age and raised for slaughter.
Assisting Xenia Twp with Accident on US 35 - 2200 piglets on board ....crews are chasing piglets all over the scene. pic.twitter.com/2JwIQaiUzv
Advertisement— Xenia Fire Division (@XFDPIO) June 9, 2015
