A 17-year-old Woodland boy has been arrested in connection with the grisly weekend slaughtering of a pig belonging to a Woodland High School Future Farmers of America student.

“I’m honestly shocked. Who would think to do such a thing?” said Marika Ocegueda, the WHS junior who had been raising the black-and-white pig, named Edwin, for the past few months. “That’s what’s affecting me the most, not knowing why someone would do that to my pig.”

Yolo County sheriff’s Sgt. Lance Faille said the teen, whose name was not released because he is a minor, was taken into custody following an interview with detectives Monday morning. He was lodged at Yolo County Juvenile Hall on suspicion of felony animal cruelty and grand theft.

Faille did not disclose how the 17-year-old was identified as a suspect in the case.

He is the second Yolo County teenager to be arrested on felony animal-cruelty charges in less than a week’s time. Last Wednesday, a 17-year-old West Sacramento boy was taken into custody on suspicion of fatally burning a stray cat on May 2.

Ocegueda, 16, said Edwin’s remains were found Monday along Cache Creek, about two miles from the school-owned farm facility on County Road 17A north of Woodland where he was last seen at about 7 p.m. Friday.

“By 7 a.m. on Saturday (the pig) was missing,” Faille said. All that was left was a large amount of blood inside the pen, along with a bloody handprint and boot marks at the scene.

Bloody drag marks along County Road 17A toward the nearby highway marked where Edwin’s carcass apparently was carted away. Faille did not say whether the teen suspect had an accomplice, but with Edwin weighing in at 120 pounds, the question has weighed on Ocegueda’s mind.

“I’m thinking so. That’s what it looked like,” she said.

Edwin was the third pig Ocegueda had raised for the FFA. Since Saturday’s incident, she’s received about a half-dozen offers of free pigs to raise in his place.

“That’s felt really good,” she said.

Woodland High officials said the animals were being raised for the Yolo County Fair in mid-August, where the animals’ showing counts toward their agricultural course grades. Students typically buy their livestock in the spring, feeding and training the animals for one to two hours per day in preparation for the fair.

“Students invest $500 to $1,200 and 200 to 300 hours in their projects and become very attached to their animals,” WHS ag adviser Jerry Delsol said. “Losing an animal this way is extremely devastating to students at this age.”

Delsol speaks from recent experience. Last August, suspects broke into the Woodland High School campus at 21 N. West St. and either poisoned or mutilated 31 FFA catfish that were slated for show at the county fair the following week.

Woodland police later arrested three juveniles — ages 11, 12 and 14 — in connection with the killings. They were charged with animal cruelty, burglary and conspiracy.

— Reach Lauren Keene at [email protected] or (530) 747-8048. Follow her on Twitter @laurenkeene

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