'This is very rare': Woman dies after being attacked by wild pigs
The killing of a woman by wild pigs outside a rural Texas home where she worked as a caretaker was a rare deadly attack by the animals, authorities say.
Christine Rollins, 59, was attacked early on Sunday in the small town of Anahuac, about 65km east of Houston.
Chambers County Sheriff Brian Hawthorne said on Monday (local time) that the attack happened around 6am when it was still dark outside.
When Rollins didn't enter the home where she worked at the usual time, the 84-year-old woman she cared for went outside and found Ms Rollins in the yard, the sheriff said.
She was lying between her own vehicle and the front door of the home, he said.
Deputies arrived to find Ms Rollins dead with multiple injuries. Because there were different sizes of bites on her body, investigators think more than one pig attacked her, Sheriff Hawthorne said.
"This is a very rare incident," the sheriff said, adding that the coroner said Ms Rollins bled to death after the attack by feral pigs.
Experts say that attacks on humans by feral pigs are rare, and fatalities even rarer.
A 2013 study by John J. Mayer of the Savannah River National Laboratory looked at attacks by wild pigs around the world from 1825 to 2012.
The study found only four fatal attacks in the US, and three of those were from animals that were wounded while being hunted.
Mike Bodenchuk, the state director of Texas Wildlife Services, said that while attacks are rare, the pigs, which are more active in the dark, are equipped to do damage, with sharp tusks that cause slashing injuries.
Victim remembered as ‘amazing woman’
Tony Sandles Junior said on Tuesday (local time) that his mother-in-law, Ms Rollins, was like family to the people she cared for.
He said she'd been a caretaker for about 40 years – cooking, cleaning, housesitting and keeping those she cared for company. He said their homes became like her own.
"She was the most amazing woman that you could ever meet," Mr Sandles said.
Mr Sandles said his mother-in-law wouldn't have gotten out of her car if she had known the pigs were near.
"She's very, very cautious," he said.
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