Vet, employees charged after pigs found wandering on Durham road

A Durham veterinarian and two of her employees are facing charges after authorities say they allowed three pigs- a mom and two babies- brought in by their owner for treatment to go free in the veterinarian’s parking lot last month.

According to deputies with the Durham County Sheriff's Office, the Affordable Animal Hospital on N. Pointe Drive first contacted the sheriff's office on Sept. 15 to report three unclaimed pigs at their office.

Deputies said they made the vet's office aware that an unclaimed animal left at a vet’s office has to remain there for 10 days before an animal is deemed abandoned by the owner. The local animal shelter was unable to take the pigs.

Paula Kay Bullock, the veterinarian, said she had been in communication with the pigs' owner. The owner, Jamie Wrenn, told investigators that he had made an unsuccessful attempt to pick up the pigs, but that he'd advised the vet that he was making other arrangements to shelter his animals.

Wrenn told WRAL News that he dropped the pigs off and paid $750 to spay the animals. A few hours later, the vet wanted to triple the price. He said he went to pick up the pigs, but they would not let him use the crate to transport them.

"They were trying to drag them all out in the parking lot and leave me with them. And one of them wasn't even secure. So I left," he said.

At about 9:30 p.m. that same day, deputies responded to a report about livestock on the road. Deputies consulted with the district attorney's office and abandonment charges were filed against the veterinarian and two employees who authorities said released the animals.

Bullock, along with Sonia Velazquez and Daisee Trejo, were charged with three counts of abandoning an animal and three counts of allowing livestock to run at large.

Trejo said she had only been working at the animal hospital for a month, and she was doing what she was told to do.

"It's not okay. I've never been in trouble with the law before. I was doing my job. I was doing what I was told to do," she said.

Velazquez also blames Bullock.

"I had the big mama pig, she was about 240 lbs maybe more, on a simple slip leash. She was pulling on my hand, it was going numb, going purple," Velazquez said.

She says that's when Bullock laughed at her.

"This is my first week there. So, I'm just following orders from what my boss is telling me," Velazquez said. "It was embarrassing. There were so many people out here with videos, taking pictures. People were passing by they were honking. Pigs are just running around."

“It was kind of like a trick or set up. It was like something dirty was going on,” Wrenn said.

The pigs are in the care of a local farm pending the outcome of the criminal case.