Wake Forest students charged with abusing pig

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- Wake Forest University officials are investigating a fraternity whose members already have been charged with abusing a 200-pound pig at a party.

The 23 members of Sigma Phi Epsilon were charged with animal cruelty and abandonment after a drunk, dehydrated and sunburned pig was found unconscious at a public park.

The maximum penalty for a conviction on a class-one misdemeanor such as animal cruelty is 90 days in jail.

Wake Forest spokesman Kevin Cox said that the university's dean of students is investigating the incident. Cox said it would be up to the dean to impose fines or suspensions against the fraternity.

County officials said the fraternity members rented a picnic shelter at Tanglewood Park for a party thrown April 20 by newly initiated members in honor of more senior fraternity members.

A letter sent to the university by the park describes a raucous Saturday night party that ran until after 2:30 a.m. The nearly 200-pound hog, which was bought from a livestock dealer in Burlington, was kept in the ladies' restroom at the shelter.

Animal-control officers were called the next morning after the pig was found in the woods by a couple walking their dog. The pig was missing its tail and was unable to stand.

"It reeked of alcohol," said Barbara Cassidy, the director of Forsyth County Animal Control. "That pig could have easily died. I don't understand how someone could think it would be fun to abuse an animal like that."

The dehydrated hog had patches on its skin where it was burned while being exposed to heat lamps used as props at the party, Cassidy said.

Animal control officers took the ailing animal to the county animal shelter, where it is recuperating under the care of a veterinarian.

Tanglewood officials also said they plan to charge the fraternity $827 for damage at the picnic shelter that included smashed light fixtures, a destroyed park bench and a broken toilet lid.

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Their creed:

I believe in the American college fraternity. I believe in Sigma Phi Epsilon. I believe in this Fraternity because it would have me strive in every way to live up to the high principles for which it stands. These are VIRTUE, DILIGENCE, AND BROTHERLY LOVE.

I believe that the word Virtue is an inclusive term; that it is not enough that I be merely passively virtuous: I must be positive on virtue's behalf. Therefore, I will stand aggressively for honesty in all walks of life, and I will speak cleanly, play cleanly and live cleanly. Whenever I can, I will oppose lawlessness and vice.

I believe that unless I succeed in being Diligent, I cannot be a good fraternity member. Believing that my fraternity can be no greater than any of its members, I shall strive to make it so high and so worthy that men will consider it an honor and privilege to belong to it and will strive to be admitted to it. I will not offer concessions to an individual to secure his affiliation, for thus making the man more note worthy then the Fraternity and hence only succeeds in lowering it in his estimation as well as mine.

I believe that Brotherly Love must be given in order to be received, and that it cannot exist without triumph of the principles of Virtue and Diligence, for these are essential parts of it.

I believe that a man will be made better for having been a member of my Fraternity. I know that I cannot expect the neophyte to be a finished product. Rather I will try to discover whether or not the environment and contact with men of high ideals will make of him a good fraternity man.

I believe that as a good fraternity member I must share a rich kinship of spirit with my brothers. Yet I realize that the members must be men of diversified abilities and talents. Among them are to be found the scholar, the athlete, the builder and craftsman. The good fraternity member must be par excellent in manhood.

I believe that to be a good member I must be loyal to my Fraternity. In order to be loyal to it, I must love it. In order to love it, I must strive constantly to make it worthy of my love. To be loyal to my Fraternity, I must gain a knowledge of it so that I may understand it. I have an obligation to understand what brotherhood means.

I believe that in any organized society group rights and privileges are based on individual rights and privileges; that in my fraternity I possess the same rights and privileges and have the same duties as my fellow members. Therefore, I shall at all times respect duly the rights of others.

I believe that obedience to the laws of my community and my country is essential to good citizenship; that the laws and rules of my Fraternity and my chapter are intended to regulate the actions of its members, one with another, and that without fidelity to those laws and rules I cannot be a good citizen and a worthy member of Sigma Phi Epsilon.

I believe I should be generous with the faults of a brother, as I should wish him to be with mine.

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