Massachusetts couple recovering from bloody pig attack

TOWNSEND, Mass. -- A Townsend couple is recovering after their pot-bellied pig attacked them both hours apart at their farm on Fitchburg Road Wednesday night.

Shannon Hernandez told CBS Boston that her five-year-old, 250-pound boar, Boss, attacked her, knocked her down, and cut her with his tusks. She said Boss was "edgy" because she had separated him from several female pigs who were in heat.

"He came at me, I fell, he got five good gashes in me," said Shannon. "Everything's fine, they stitched me up, stapled me."

Shannon suffered lacerations on her leg, arm, and wrist.

But as she was being tended to at Leominster Hospital, Shannon learned that her husband, Jose, had also been attacked by Boss, and was being taken to UMass Memorial Medical Center with life-threatening injuries.

"He had gone and done water, and he attacked him as well," said Shannon. "He got the worst ... He lost a lot of blood."

Shannon said doctors put 2 pints of blood back into her husband, and that the boar had severed arteries in Jose's hand with his tusks. She said Jose's life was saved when a nurse driving by saw him trying to wave down cars. Due to the severity of Jose's injuries, a medical helicopter was requested, but could not fly due to weather conditions.

Jose remains in the hospital on sedatives, and Shannon said she felt "overwhelmed" at the moment and couldn't wait to go and see him.

Shannon said she's never before felt threatened in any way by her pigs.

"They're my pets, and they've never attacked me," said Shannon. "The girls go into heat every 21 days, so it's my responsibility to keep him quarantined enough that he won't break through, and he did, he broke through."

With Boss now quarantined by Townsend Animal Control, Shannon said she had not yet decided what would be done with him.

"I can't say right now what I want to do," said Shannon. "He's my pet, but he's done this twice within an hour, and I have to make a decision."