On Monday evening in North Amherst, it wasn’t a chicken crossing the road – it was a 400-pound sow named Rosie, straight from Simple Gift Farms, according to the Daily Hampshire Gazette.

The 18-month-old pig held up traffic in the center of town, which forced police, at 7:26 p.m., to intervene and escort the sow back to its home at Simple Gift Farms, according to the article.

When Rosie was brought back to the farm, her owner, Dave Tepfer, according to the Gazette, ushered her back in with plywood. However, instead of placing her in the pig pen with 15 other pigs, he placed her in a cow barn due to the electric fence’s inability to act as a restraint.

However, nearly two hours after the initial breakout, Rosie busted through the plywood to return to town, reported the Gazette.

According to the Gazette, drivers stopped their vehicles to observe the animal. Tepfer brought the animal back to the farm to diagnose her on Tuesday.

According to the Gazette article, the farm’s co-owner, Jeremy Barker Plotkin, said that Rosie was isolated back at the farm in order to determine whether the animal has rabies or any other sickness.

The notion of the sow having rabies may not be far-fetched. On Oct. 14, the Associated Press reported that a sheep, living at 120 Pulpit Road in Amherst, was diagnosed with rabies.

The Gazette reported that Rosie, according to Tepfer, was acting strangely and exhibiting odd behavior. Tepfer said that he believed Rosie wandered into some of the farm’s bushes and plants which could have acted like hallucinogens for the animal, causing her to wander the streets and hold up traffic.

Rosie does more than just crusade the town streets, because, as the Gazette article stated, she breeds piglets twice a year for a three-year period. As for Rosie’s fate after the three-year period? Tepfer said to the Gazette that she will, ultimately, be made into hot dogs.

Herb Scribner can be reached at [email protected].