The traditional street trader’s claim that his merchandise is untraceable because it “fell off the back of a lorry” is posing a problem for the RSPCA after a pig did just that.

Jasmine, a Tamworth-breed piglet, has become a controversial figure at the society’s Chesterfield branch after dozens of people rang to stake their claim on her. However, she is unable to leave the society’s Chesterfield and North Derbyshire centre because of movement restrictions caused by the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak.

Bill Smith, 67, a famer from Staveley in Derbyshire, claims that the pig must be his because he is the only person in the area to breed Tamworth pigs. Some 25 other people have also telephoned the society to offer Jasmine a home.

A spokesman for the society said that it was difficult to determine ownership because the piglet is newborn and had not undergone the usual tagging and tattooing procedures. “We are still trying to establish where it’s from,” he said. “There is also an issue over the movement of livestock.”

Jasmine, who was still attached to her umbilical cord, is believed to have fallen from a lorry after her mother gave birth to her in transit. She was found this month by Anthony Davies, a local motorist.

Jasmine is not the first Tamworth pig to make national headlines. A pair of escaped pigs, nicknamed Butch and Sundance, were dubbed the Tamworth Two after they escaped while being unloaded from a lorry at a slaughterhouse in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, in 1998. They crawled through a fence and across the River Avon to safety. After being recaptured the Two were spared slaughter when they were bought for £15,000 by a national newspaper. A film was later made about their great escape.

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