Two men are facing felony charges in Maui for allegedly stealing a pig from a local animal sanctuary and staging a fake hunt for it on social media. The men then entered the 250-pound pig named “Eddie” into a local hog hunting contest in May and won it, according to the pig’s owner Sarah Haynes, who described Eddie as a “gentle giant” who was trusting of humans.
“They both hogtied him and dragged him — alive — out the hole in our fence, and down deep into the Gulch,” Haynes wrote in a Facebook post, referring to the trespassers who cut open the pig’s fence on May 11. “They then used Eddie to stage a fake hunting video with their dogs. They killed him, gutted him, and transported him to a contest in Makawao that they had entered the night before.”
Haynes, who operates Kitty Charm Farm in Haiku, explained in a follow-up post that the two men were arrested in July. Jayden Jarnesky-Magana, 18, of Wailuku, and Krys-Ryan Saito Carino, 20, of Waiehu, have since been charged with felonies for animal cruelty and theft of livestock, along with misdemeanors for criminal property damage, according to court documents obtained by Maui Now.
Haynes explained that she was initially tipped off by other hunters. She said that after she made a social media post calling attention to Eddie’s disappearance, several hunters shared with her the staged video that had been submitted to contest officials. It was through watching this video that she was able to identify her pig.
“The hunters were skeptical apparently from the minute the pig arrived, because he’s neutered and was 250 pounds, usually the winning pig is 150,” Haynes told Island News. “The two men and their friends that showed up at the competition, they couldn’t pick him up off the back of the truck, he fell to the ground.”
Although Haynes did not reveal the name of the hunting contest or any participants, she claimed that the two men won the top prize of $1,000. It’s unclear if the men were disqualified, or if the tournament organizers have pushed for additional charges related to fraud in the time since they’ve been charged.
There has been plenty of outrage in response to Haynes’ posts, with many users furious about the allegations. Some have also questioned why the men went out of their way to steal and kill a pet pig when the Hawaiian islands are already full of (and in some areas, overrun with) wild hogs. These overpopulations of feral pigs are wreaking ecological havoc, as they are in many other states, and Hawaiian wildlife managers encourage their harvest through regulated hunting.
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Haynes has also said that she doesn’t want hunters to be vilified because of what the two men allegedly did to her pig. She added that she is grateful for the local hunters who helped with the investigation by calling out unethical behavior and sharing evidence with authorities.
“Hunters have a code of conduct,” Haynes wrote on Facebook. “These young men broke all the rules… The hunting community will need to reassess contests in general, and incentives that attract illegal behavior. But they did not commit the crimes against Eddie,” she continued. “This is about stealing a pet, putting that pet through tremendous trauma. It’s also about fraudulently entering a contest to win money.”
Maui News reports that Carino entered a plea of not guilty during his arraignment on Aug. 1, and that Jarnesky-Magana’s arraignment was scheduled for Aug. 6. It’s not immediately clear if Jarnesky-Magana entered a plea and the prosecuting attorney was unavailable to provide clarification.