MIDLAND, Texas — Whitney Winn and her husband were taking their daughter to school Thursday morning around 8:30 a.m., when she looked out her car window and noticed two javelinas in someone's front yard.
"We turned onto Cuthbert going pass the duck pond and out of the corner of my eye I see something, wasn’t sure what it was and I looked briefly again and I noticed they were javelinas and I kind of turned to my husband and said I think there’s two javelinas running in the front yard," Winn said. "He kind of looked at me like I was crazy and he immediately took the next right and came back around and I got my camera out and sure enough two javelinas running in the front yard right off of Cuthbert. It was a sight to see [and] I didn’t believe my eyes because it was right downtown by the duck pond typically you don’t see javelinas down there."
As soon as she recorded her video, she went straight to the Nextdoor App to simply alert those in the area.
"I posted it on Nextdoor because I was scared that someone would walk up on them with a stroller or a dog and run into two javelinas," Winn said. "I don’t know if they’re aggressive but just in case I didn’t want anybody to run into them."
Shortly after the javelinas were spotted, Midland Animal Control was called and they were taken to the A to Z Veterinary Clinic.
However, you're encouraged to leave them alone and Museum Scientist and Naturalist with Sibley Nature Center, Michael Nickell, explained what javelinas actually are.
"Javelina is a type of wild animal. It’s sort of related to pigs but it’s not pigs. Pigs and javelinas belong to 2 different families of animals," Nickell said. "Their ferocity are greatly exaggerated [and] they tend to shy away from people. Just like any wild animal if it feels threatened, it will defend itself but otherwise they’ll run away from you."